{"id":1912603,"date":"2023-04-10T18:41:30","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T22:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-is-still-covering-up-his-deadly-afghan-withdrawal\/"},"modified":"2023-04-10T18:42:52","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T22:42:52","slug":"biden-is-still-covering-up-his-deadly-afghan-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-is-still-covering-up-his-deadly-afghan-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Is Still Covering Up His Deadly Afghan Withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-is-still-covering-up-his-deadly-afghan-withdrawal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1912603&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Last year, a White House staffer <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/04\/18\/easter-bunny-stops-biden-from-answering-reporters-question\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dressed<\/a> as Easter Bunny prevented President Joe Biden from answering questions about his botched Afghanistan withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>This Easter, the administration released a useless official \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2023\/04\/06\/1168424901\/biden-administration-assessment-afghanistan-withdrawal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">assessment<\/a>\u201d to do much the same. And you won\u2019t be shocked, I suspect, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/06\/biden-blames-trump-for-afghanistan-exit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to discover<\/a> that the administration places most of the blame for the deadly debacle, which saw 13 American servicemen and over 170 Afghans murdered at the Abbey Gate outside Kabul\u2019s Hamid Karzai International Airport, on Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1557585170\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-37fd510c9f65573a51740b30a7e1af2c fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-37fd510c9f65573a51740b30a7e1af2c\"><\/div>\n<p>Indeed, the\u00a0Afghanistan nation-building experiment was a bipartisan, trans-administrational disaster. In over 20 years, thousands of American lives and hundreds of billions of dollars were spent trying to build a self-sustaining Afghan military, police, infrastructure, educational system, and \u201cdemocracy.\u201d All of it fell in only 20 days to the Taliban. But it wasn\u2019t Trump who promised a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/biden-afghanistan-withdrawal-safe-orderly\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">safe and orderly<\/a>\u201d departure. It wasn\u2019t Trump who failed to evacuate thousands of Americans and allies before the country collapsed. Nor was it Trump who left behind <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2022\/04\/28\/the-u-s-left-billions-worth-of-weapons-in-afghanistan\/#:~:text=In%20all%2C%20the%20United%20States,report%20first%20seen%20by%20CNN.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">billions<\/a> in military equipment to the Taliban. It was Biden who gave Islamists their \u201cFall of Saigon\u201d moment.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps a Republican president would have ignored <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2022\/02\/08\/afghanistan-evacuation-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warnings<\/a> from military leaders regarding the dangers of staying wedded to the Taliban\u2019s timeline. Maybe they would have ignored <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/suicide-bomber-who-killed-us-troops-and-afghans-likely-used-unguarded-route-to-kabul-airport-gate?token=tZ9ejDRwRdkWcBWAPIPUABptkF8h6MTi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">warnings<\/a> from intelligence officials that terrorists might take advantage of unsecured paths that U.S. officials were actually encouraging civilians to use to get to the airport. But it wasn\u2019t. It was Biden who oversaw all of it in an effort to get an early political boost.<\/p>\n<p>Nor was it Trump\u2019s fault that thousands of Americans and American allies, including a translator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/afghan-interpreter-who-helped-rescue-biden-in-2008-left-behind-after-u-s-exit-11630429285#:~:text=Thirteen%20years%20ago%2C%20Afghan%20interpreter,President%20Biden%20to%20save%20him.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">who had<\/a> personally helped Biden in 2008, were left at the mercy of the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>You might recall the entire left-wing Twittersphere <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidfrum\/status\/1432455504509341700\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">chastising<\/a> conservatives for spreading the myth that Americans had been \u201cstranded\u201d \u2014 as in, left without the means to move from somewhere \u2014 in Talibanistan. Then-press secretary and now-MSNBC host Jen Psaki <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/live-news\/live-updates-taliban-gain-more-ground-in-afghanistan-as-they-close-in-on-kabul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> journalists \u201cno Americans\u201d were stranded in Afghanistan, instructing them that it was \u201cirresponsible\u201d to say so. A couple of weeks ago, Secretary of State Antony Blinken <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/blinken-says-several-americans-remain-detained-taliban-afghanistan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">adm<\/a>itted to Congress that there were <em>still<\/em> 175 American citizens in Afghanistan, \u201cseveral\u201d directly held captive by the Taliban. It\u2019s a shame none of those 175 citizens play for the WNBA. Perhaps then the media would be interested in their fate.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c5b7796bcdbdd25088af174a3db89a87 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c5b7796bcdbdd25088af174a3db89a87\"><\/div>\n<p>At the time, John Kirby, Pentagon spokesperson, flippantly <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/pentagon-spox-we-have-americans-that-get-stranded-in-countries-all-the-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> the press that \u201cwe have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time.\u201d Perhaps. But Americans don\u2019t typically find themselves stuck in \u201cnations\u201d run by Islamic warlords and terror groups because of the U.S. government\u2019s ineptitude. At the release of the assessment, Kirby, now coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/lifestyle\/talk-chaos-just-didn-t-191016795.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> these incredible words: \u201cFor all this talk of chaos, I just didn\u2019t see it. Not from my perch.\u201d Did Kirby not see the crush of people streaming to the airport to escape the advancing Taliban? Did he not see the explosion that killed dozens of people? Apparently not.<\/p>\n<p>Recall, also, that the Biden administration had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/08\/26\/us-officials-provided-taliban-with-names-of-americans-afghan-allies-to-evacuate-506957\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly<\/a> shared a list of \u201cAmerican citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies\u201d with the Taliban. The administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/6220008.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">brag<\/a>ged that the Taliban had \u201cshown flexibility\u201d and was comporting themselves in a \u201cbusinesslike and professional\u201d manner. How many victims of the Taliban were on that list?<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s not forget what happened after the murder of American servicemen, either. \u201cKnow this,\u201d Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CkgAZuUeAus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cWe will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.\u201d Three days later, an airstrike killed ten Afghans, seven of them children. Not one of the dead was an \u201cISIS facilitator,\u201d as the administration had initially alleged. Was that Trump\u2019s fault, as well? At the time, General Mark Milley <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/News\/Transcripts\/Transcript\/Article\/2762169\/secretary-of-defense-austin-and-chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-mille\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">called<\/a> the strike \u201cvalid\u201d and \u201crighteous\u201d and blamed \u201csecondary explosions\u201d for some of the death toll. None of that, it seems, turned out to be true.<\/p>\n<p>Did he make it all up? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/09\/15\/milley-held-secret-calls-with-china-others-as-trump-pushed-election-lies.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Maybe the Chicoms know<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-72e339726293d94e7d3564d838f1cf1a fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-72e339726293d94e7d3564d838f1cf1a\"><\/div>\n<p>Most experts warning Biden about the dangers almost certainly wanted to stay in the nation in perpetuity. As a policy matter, however, whether we should have withdrawn from Afghanistan and how we withdrew are completely separate issues. Biden wasn\u2019t compelled to follow Trump\u2019s strategy on Afghanistan withdrawal. Once he did, it was his responsibility. One of the central arguments for a Biden presidency was the alleged \u2014 and <em>highly<\/em> debatable \u2014 foreign policy acumen of the man. And two years ago, as the bungling, chaotic, and deadly withdrawal was unfolding, Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kRMRmF6Us-c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a> the \u201cbuck stops with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But it never does, does it?<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ca1ca26bb434288a910fe8f73df050b5 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ca1ca26bb434288a910fe8f73df050b5\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">   David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist, a nationally syndicated columnist, a Happy Warrior columnist at National Review, and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. He has appeared on Fox News, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News and radio talk shows across the country. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/afghanistan\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Afghanistan<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/antony-blinken\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Antony Blinken<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Donald Trump<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/jen-psaki\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Jen Psaki<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Joe Biden<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/john-kirby\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">John Kirby<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/mark-milley\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Mark Milley<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/taliban\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Taliban<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last year, a White House staffer dressed as Easter Bunny prevented President Joe Biden from answering questions about his botched Afghanistan withdrawal. This Easter, the administration released a useless official \u201cassessment\u201d to do much the same. And you won\u2019t be shocked, I suspect, to discover that the administration places most of the blame for the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":1912604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[6782,3620,6607,3650,8050],"class_list":["post-1912603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-afghan","tag-biden","tag-covering","tag-deadly","tag-withdrawal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1912603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1912603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1912604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1912603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1912603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1912603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}