Biden has justified his botched Afghanistan withdrawal by saying it was time to end the “endless war.”
“And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me,” Biden said on August 14, 2021.
He echoed that sentiment two days later. “I have been clear that human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery. But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments; it’s with our diplomacy, our economic tools, and rallying the world to join us,” Biden said. “I cannot and I will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another — in another country’s civil war, taking casualties, suffering life-shattering injuries, leaving families broken by grief and loss.”
“I’m now the fourth American President to preside over war in Afghanistan — two Democrats and two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibly on — responsibility on to a fifth President,” he added.
On Friday, after the terror attacks in Kabul left 13 U.S. service members and many more dead, he once again justified his actions by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, it was time to end a 20-year war.”
But he hasn’t ended the 20-year war. On Friday, a retaliatory strike was carried out against an ISIS-K “planner,” and Joe Biden announced on Saturday that more strikes are coming.
“I said we would go after the group responsible for the attack on our troops and innocent civilians in Kabul, and we have,” Biden said in a statement. “This strike was not the last. We will continue to hunt down any person involved in that heinous attack and make them pay.”
Related: Donald Trump Warned Us What a Rushed Pullout of Afghanistan Would Like Back in 2017
“Our commanders informed me that an attack is highly likely in the next 24-36 hours,” he continued. “I directed them to take every possible measure to prioritize force protection, and ensured that they have all the authorities, resources and plans to protect our men and women on the ground. They assured me that they did, and that they could take these measures while completing the mission and safely retrograding our personnel.”
The Pentagon announced on Saturday that the final withdrawal of forces has begun.
While retaliation is the right move, it also shows that Biden’s desperate attempt to end an “endless war” failed. The botched withdrawal created an exposed situation that resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members. Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban means the country will once again become Ground Zero to plan terror attacks against the west by ISIS and al Qaeda. America has been weakened by the events in Afghanistan over the past few weeks, while our enemies have been emboldened. Whatever the objective is of the upcoming airstrikes, they won’t bring our enemies to their knees. They won’t surrender. Are these airstrikes for show, or does Biden really mean it when he says those who committed these attacks will pay? Because that will be no easy feat, nor will it be accomplished by a couple of drone strikes.
While the Pentagon claims that they killed two “high profile” targets in their Friday strike, they curiously won’t release the names of those they say were killed. Considering all the smoke and mirrors we’ve been getting from the administration, even the Pentagon recently, there are legitimate questions about what that strike accomplished and, frankly, what the forthcoming strikes will accomplish. But, even if Biden pulls all of our troops out of Afghanistan, the endless war there won’t be over. Our enemies see how weak America is with Biden at the helm and will act accordingly.
Make no mistake about it: the threat of terrorism from Afghanistan is now worse than it has been in twenty years.
