Wednesday night, Aug. 25, was a restless night. I couldn’t identify the feeling of discomfort and being unsettled. I only had to wake up Thursday morning to find out. There were initial reports of three injured Marines, but tragically the list grew to 13 dead U.S. troops and dozens more injured, some seriously.
President Joe Biden did not address the incident for over seven hours, and when he did, his words were at times detached from the topic and overall stupefying.
Biden began with some perfunctory words about our great military men and women. We the grateful people already know that. The second punch was talking about himself — his son who had been in Iraq at one time then came home to die of brain cancer. He forgot to mention that son was an attorney in a well-protected Green Zone.
There were moments in his delivery that made viewers wonder if he was physically alright. Was something happening to him? He ended the vacuous speech clearly stating that “they” had given him a list of which reporters to call on for questions. This is but one of multiple times of Biden referring to the “they” getting mad at him if he doesn’t follow instructions. Or that “they” gave him a list, as he searches his pockets to recite. At one point as a reporter questioned him, he leaned into the podium, head fully down, leaving the audience to look at the top of his head. Bizarre.
President Joe Biden is not a leader. Who is really in charge?
Biden’s response to being asked if he accepted responsibility for these deaths was that he bears responsibility fundamentally for all that has unfolded. He immediately diluted that by following up with blaming former President Donald Trump. Blaming Trump has been the desperate and needed claim from the Biden camp. The mantra is that Trump set a deadline that had to be met. That’s hollow because Biden swept into office and signed multiple executive orders, erasing everything Trump had set in place; yet this is the one thing that could not be altered — it was indelible. Moreover, this White House conveniently omits the fact that the withdrawal agreement Trump had came with certain, strict conditions with the final statement of “or else.” Trump had already proven that “or else” with Syria and left no doubt he would swiftly exercise due penalty. Thirteen thousand troops had been removed from Afghanistan during Trump’s four years along with billions of dollars in military equipment and weapons, all peacefully and orderly. Biden did not continue that plan.
The message seems to be that the war started when Trump was in office and all of it is a terrible inheritance of Biden’s as of November 2020 and materially strange to him.
President George W. Bush was in office when America went into Iraq. Then-Sen. Joe Biden voted to enter that war after September 2001 along with other senators including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer. Later the chant became Iraq was all wrong; Afghanistan was the war we should be fighting. Citizen and President Trump has always been against the war.
Biden had front-row experience with the enemy with the 1993 the World Trade Center bombing. He had been a U.S. senator for 21 years at that point. Biden had been a senator for 28 years when the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole occurred in Yemen. He was a vice president for eight years, prior to Trump’s presidency, but somehow now as president, Biden had a strange object dripped in his lap.
The Biden camp continues to echo they do not know how many Americans remain in Afghanistan. However, they can tell you how many Americans have not been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
The horrible tragedy of Aug. 26 is not a surprise to clear-eyed Americans. We witness a president who literately loses his way while trying to enter the White House. He recently spoke telling people to get vaccinated because to date (just) 350 million Americans had gotten the jabs. Worldometer puts the U.S. population, as of Aug. 24, at 333,220,183. The latter is not unusual for this man; it’s all too common and he much more than just misspeaks, but I digress.
Secondly, this president has repeatedly downplayed America’s threats, from telling us our southern border is secure to the saying the Taliban is cooperating with a peaceful withdrawal.
Third, the people who speak to us on behalf of this administration are (mainly) Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor, Gen. Mark Milley and White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. They do not imbue any degree of comfort or strength collectively, let alone solely. Milley is focused on “white rage” as America’s biggest threat. If the utterances of “eh” and “uh” were taken out of the English language, Jen Psaki and John Kirby would be rendered mute.
The United States of America presently has no leadership and not a modicum of strength at the top. The intelligence agencies, military, the White House and the aforementioned group give conflicting information to the public and often speak to correct something the president had stated earlier. America the Great has been ceded to the guidance and mandates of foreign terrorists. America’s position has morphed into us playing Mother-May-I.
Moreover, our once-allies dislike us and do not trust us.
Politico reported on Thursday that our officials in Kabul “gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport.”
Yes, an American-provided kill list.
The blood-letting has just begun.
Betty Arenson is a Santa Clarita resident. “Right Here, Right Now” appears Saturdays and rotates among local Republicans.
