BIDEN VOTERS POSTING THEIR L’S ONLINE: Who Is the Incompetent POTUS Now?

In its top leader, The Economist writes that the Afghanistan debacle “is a dangerous moment for [Joe Biden’s] presidency” (“Where Next for global Jihad?“, August 28).

What a contrast with the Lexington column of January 5, 2019, in which Donald Trump was described as “ill-disciplined”, with “little attention span”, or with any “long-time view of almost anything” (in addition to holding “awkward” addresses). The 45th President, we learned then, “has made many bad moves in security and other policy against the generals’ advice”, while, luckily, “strong, reliable public servants” like Jim Mattis and John Kelly have tried to act as “safeguards against calamity.” In January 2021, we were told that Republicans face a choice between Donald Trump and reality.

The Democrats’ 2020 election message was that the grown-ups would be back in charge. So who made the moronic decision to close Bagram air base and to remove America’s soldiers from Kabul before (not after) it removed its civilians? Joe Biden? His generals?

As Jim Geraghty wrote last month, “Every four years, the message is the same: Trust us, we’re the ones who know what we’re doing. And yet, the oddest thing happens — the Democratic foreign-policy establishment gets in power, and a short while later, so many things go wrong.”