Biden’s Abandonment of Americans in Afghanistan Is a Dereliction of Presidential Duty
Not only did Biden’s bungled withdrawal destroy America’s soft power abroad by showing the world how unreliable it is as an ally, but it also perhaps irreparably ruined the relationship between the governed and their government after average Americans realized that their lives simply don’t matter to the authorities even though they put them on the line to advance the US’ interests with the expectation that at least a half-hearted effort would be made to save them if everything fell apart in Afghanistan.
US President Joe Biden has a duty to protect Americans abroad, yet his administration shamefully abandoned thousands of them in Afghanistan as part of its chaotic withdrawal from the war-torn country. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby admitted that his government doesn’t even know how many are still trapped there since they didn’t have to register with the embassy upon their arrival. Republican Senator Tom Cotton, meanwhile, claimed that thousands of them remain to be rescued and offered his office’s services to help facilitate their evacuation.
Making the optics even worse is the State Department previously demanding that Americans there foot the approximately $2,000 bill per person or sign a promissory note to that effect in order to be allowed onto their country’s emergency aircraft but then reversed its contentious policy following public outrage. Furthermore, it’s recently been revealed that some of the departing flights are barely filled at all, showing just how disorganized everything still is. Average Americans are right to conclude that their government doesn’t care about them even if they’re stranded in a war zone after that same government disastrously bungled its long-planned withdrawal.
This observation deserves further contemplation because it speaks to the growing disconnect between the governed and their government. Former President Trump at least made a big deal about helping average Americans and ensuring that they’re treated with respect abroad. He even released a statement confirming that his original withdrawal strategy was to bring out all the American citizens first, the opposite of what Biden did. In fact, Biden doesn’t even seem to care all that much about what’s happening, and the images of him staring into space and remaining seemingly aloof of everything have rightly incensed average Americans.
There’s no plausible reason why Biden couldn’t have prioritized the evacuation of Americans in Afghanistan well ahead of the planned withdrawal date by the end of this month, which might be extended until September 11th per the original deadline before he pushed it ahead nearly two weeks earlier this summer. It’s now known that the CIA and the State Department released separate forecasts concluding that the Afghan government was on the verge of a rapid collapse, yet these warnings went unheeded and top American officials deny that they were even aware of them.
Americans deserve to find out what really happened and why thousands of their compatriots were shamefully abandoned in Afghanistan despite the intelligence and diplomatic branches of their permanent bureaucracy (“deep state”) warning about the high likelihood of their local allies’ collapse in the face of the Taliban’s lightning-fast offensive. It needs to be determined exactly who dropped the ball and why. Biden is ultimately responsible for everything per his own admission after declaring that “the buck stops with me” but he’s unlikely to resign because of it, which is why Congress should seriously consider impeachment.
It might be premature to do so right now while all the facts are still coming out, but someone on the Republican side will probably push this possibility sooner than later. It would be best if there’s bipartisan support for this too since Biden’s dereliction of his presidential duties through his abandonment of thousands of Americans in Afghanistan is arguably a betrayal of national interests. Regardless of whether one agrees with those Americans’ activities in that country or not, their lives are still the responsibility of the US government since they traveled there to advance their homeland’s interests in one way or another.
Not only did Biden’s bungled withdrawal destroy America’s soft power abroad by showing the world how unreliable it is as an ally, but it also perhaps irreparably ruined the relationship between the governed and their government after average Americans realized that their lives simply don’t matter to the authorities even though they put them on the line to advance the US’ interests with the expectation that at least a half-hearted effort would be made to save them if everything fell apart in Afghanistan. None of the allegedly “treasonous” things that Trump supposedly did can compare to this betrayal, which is why Biden must be politically punished.
