The Washington Examiner just published a piece by Garrett Exner explaining why it is that, despite what the White House claims, President Joe Biden - and only Biden - is to blame for the Afghanistan debacle.
Exner is described as "the executive director of the Public Interest Fellowship and is on the advisory council of Veterans On Duty." He also is a former "special operations officer in the Marine Corps."
By the "Afghanistan debacle," we are referring to what happened before, during, and after the Biden administration's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
The reader will likely remember that several troops died during withdrawal - but that's only part of what went wrong. After the withdrawal, Afghanistan - and the equipment left behind by the United States - ended up in the hands of the Taliban, and, now, the Taliban is reportedly engaged in human rights abuses.
Recently, there have been several developments in the matter, including a report from the Biden administration, in which it attempted to shift the blame for what went wrong on others - including the previous administration.
Exner, in his piece, explains why it is that Biden's Afghanistan narrative is simply wrong - why it is that the blame ultimately lies with Biden.
Not much more needs to be said about the matter than this. But, Exner goes into specifics.
Exner writes:
From the day he took office, it was clear Biden was intent on pulling all U.S. forces out of Afghanistan to deliver on a campaign promise he perceived to be popular. It’s fair to say the White House was more interested in orchestrating a public relations exercise than planning a coherent military strategy. Biden’s officials routinely ignored the advice of the military advisers, and their lack of a coherent plan created an impossible situation for the troops there.
From here, Exner points out how multiple bad decisions made by the Biden administration - including the decision, against the advice of military leaders, to do the withdrawal in the summer rather than the winter - led to the botched withdrawal.
Exner also highlights the fact that just about everything claim made by Biden and his administration, at the time, turned out to be false. Exner writes:
Biden vowed to the public that he had “planned for every contingency.” Administration officials assured Congress that the Afghan military could hold out for a year or two. And Biden promised on multiple occasions that the Taliban would not control large swaths of the country, and that under “no circumstance” would the world see helicopters evacuating people off the roof of the U.S. Embassy.
Yet, these things happened.
Exner's piece comes as the inspector general on Afghanistan has released a report that completely undermines the Biden administration's narrative.
On top of this, several government watchdogs have recently testified before Congress on the matter.
There's no way Biden is escaping blame for this one.
