Dear Friends,
President Joe Biden, along with a vast web of institutional media enablers, is betting on your Attention Deficit Disorder. Sadly, given that this is America in the 21st century, that is not an unreasonable bet.
I feel an overwhelming duty to counteract it. Let’s pass around some Ritalin and see if we can maintain some focus.
Three weeks ago it dawned on me that the President fully intended to leave people behind in Afghanistan—if not American citizens, certainly Afghan SIV holders and their families. SIV stands for “Special Immigrant Visa,” which was granted to Afghans who performed risky and heroic work during our efforts in Afghanistan—support personnel, interpreters, translators, and so forth. An SIV represents a promise, or perhaps several promises: you help us, and we have your back. We will protect you. You have a home in the United States of America. We will not abandon you or your family.
However, the President’s reassurances that we were going to get all of our citizens and SIVs out of the country were so free-floating, so devoid of any kind of substantive plan, and, at times, so self-contradictory that it was impossible for a rational person to credit them.
And to the everlasting and horrifying disgrace of our nation, many of our fears were realized. Not all of our fears; more remain, now that we have, in fact, left Americans and SIVs behind. Reprisal killings, torture, and mass executions are likely next.
And the President thinks you will forget.
The President is banking that you will forget.
The President’s plan is for you to forget.
Don’t believe me? Richard Holbrooke served twice as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State. He died in 2010. Here is a jaw-dropping passage about a conversation with Joe Biden that has been unearthed from his personal diaries. (Ask yourself why someone would fabricate a story for their personal diary.)
[Biden said] Afghanistan was the other issue that could pull us down and we have to be on our way out, that we had to do what we did in Vietnam. This shocked me and I commented immediately that I thought we had a certain obligation to the people who had trusted us. He said, ‘F— that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.’
“Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.” That has always been Biden’s game plan: to get away with it.
That requires you forgetting about it. And so, on cue, every legacy media outlet is suddenly acting like Joe Biden. Thirteen American troops got blown up because of his incompetence? That was like four, five days ago, man! No, it’s worse than that—it’s off the front pages and homepages altogether. Like it never happened. Oh, look! A hurricane! Oh, look! That irrelevant backbench right-wing nut job Madison Cawthorn said something idiotic again! Oh, look! Covid case numbers are up! Oh, look! Texas is the real Taliban! Look! Squirrel!
Nicole Gee deserves better:
Look at that vibrant face, so full of youth. Not much older than my own daughter. She’s dead. Gone. Her car is still in the parking lot. This was the last picture she sent to her family, along with the caption: “I love my job!”
Joe Biden wants you to forget about Nicole and the twelve other soldiers who put themselves in harm’s way to fulfill his now-broken promises, and he wants you to forget that baby and his father and mother and brothers and sisters—probably all SIV holders who, if left behind, now face almost certain death.
F— that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam and Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.
I don’t know if I can conjure any non-profane words, but I will try.
Let’s keep our focus, our eyes on the ball. With a lot of help from National Review’s Jim Geraghty, let us review a few promises President Biden made all the way back in distant memory—July 8th, 2021.
The drawdown is proceeding in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart. . . .
That was… not orderly or safe. Take another look at the picture above.
We provided advanced weaponry. And we’re going to continue to provide funding and equipment. And we’ll ensure they have the capacity to maintain their air force…
We pulled all funding and maintenance overnight.
In our meeting, I also assured [President] Ghani that U.S. support for the people of Afghanistan will endure. We will continue to provide civilian and humanitarian assistance, including speaking out for the rights of women and girls…
We are providing no civilian and humanitarian assistance. The Taliban has ordered all women to remain in their homes until their soldiers “accept women in public spaces.”
I intend to maintain our diplomatic [presence] in Afghanistan….
The United States no longer has any diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
We’re going to continue to work for the release of detained Americans, including Mark — excuse me — Fre– Frerichs — I want to pronounce the name correctly; I mis- — I misspoke — so that he can return to his family safely.
Mark Frerichs remains in Taliban custody.
We’re also going to continue to make sure that we take on the Afghan nationals who work side-by-side with U.S. forces, including interpreters and translators — since we’re no longer going to have military there after this; we’re not going to need them and they have no jobs — who are also going to be vital to our efforts so they — and they’ve been very vital — and so their families are not exposed to danger as well.
We abandoned them by the tens of thousands.
Our message to those women and men is clear: There is a home for you in the United States if you so choose, and we will stand with you just as you stood with us.
Our message, our promises, our ideals, our valor, and our integrity is worthless. I am so tired of the euphemisms. This was not mere incompetence. It was not just a “botched” withdrawal. No: what the United States of America just did is wicked. Regardless of whatever view you take on the Afghan conflict in general or the need for withdrawal—let me say that again: even if you opposed our efforts in Afghanistan or thought we needed to leave, what we just did was evil. We reneged on our promises and betrayed people who toiled and bled for us.
I refuse to forget. I refuse to let President Biden “get away with it.” But what can I do, save shouting all of this from the rooftop of my little piece of digital real estate? I can vote, and I will never support anyone who was within a hundred miles of this disgrace. I can urge my Senators and Representative to demand accountability—futile as that seems sometimes. So far the only person held accountable is Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, who posted a video criticizing his leaders.
Will President Biden get away with it? Will the American people be so easily distracted? Can he pull off a Hillary-esque “What difference, at this point, does it make!?” If I know the American people, probably. But I can also think of some reasons he may not get away with it.
The Taliban might plan some kind of final humiliation—a mass execution, say, or a mass-hostage situation where they demand a ransom for American citizens. The media would not be able to ignore that. Second, say what you will about the political biases of many journalists in this country, many of those journalists know people in Afghanistan. If there is a wave of reprisal killings—if their friends and sources start disappearing, I would not count on them remaining silent. In other words, I think that President Biden may have outsmarted himself with his callous cynicism: events have a say, too. And just because “Nixon and Kissinger” got away with it is no guarantee Biden will.
Events have a say, and events can get a lot worse. Pray for Afghanistan, pray our nation will repent and somehow recover even the slightest piece of our honor and integrity, and pray for justice and accountability.
Miscellany
Don’t forget:
A group of American heroes—U.S. Army Special Operations veterans, devised a plan to get their Afghan friends and their families out of Kabul. It required an incredible amount of bravery and precision. They succeeded in getting 500 out. Read more about the “Pineapple Express.” Green Berets are the best in the business. It’s a disgrace that retired operators had to do what the U.S. Military was not allowed to do—they are worthy of double honor.
NBC confirms that we left “a majority” of SIVs behind.
As for how many U.S. citizens were left, here’s what I think:
The new abortion law in Texas that the Supreme Court let stand (for the time being) has everyone riled up and confused. It is, as David French notes, a “sideshow.” The main event is Dobbs v. Jackson, to be argued shortly before the Court, and the Court has very little wiggle room: the Roe regime will either stand or fall. For my part, I’m praying that the 5 votes in the Texas case hold true in Dobbs—but you can never predict these things. But if I were to gesture at one guess, if the five (Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett) vote to get rid of Roe v. Wade at long last, I think Chief Justice Roberts will join them (probably in a separate concurrence) and it will be a 6-3 decision. He won’t be the fifth vote, but I think he’d want to be a sixth: he’s allergic to 5-4 splits in controversial cases.
If you’re a National Review PLUS subscriber, make sure to read Charlie Cooke’s essay, “Roe is the Problem.”
If Roe goes, Ramesh Ponnuru is a helpful guide on what happens next.
On the lighter side, art restorers have “fixed” Johannes Vermeer’s painting “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window.” It is an amazing story—Vermeer had originally painted a painting of Cupid on the wall (a pretty important thing for the “plot” of the painting!), but someone later painted it over to just look like a blank wall. They’ve uncovered the original, and it is a sight to behold!
There is clearly room for songs of rage and lament and anger and crying out to God, particularly in dark times like these. Read the Psalms. Glen Hansard (of The Swell Season) captures the tone of my heart these days. He’ll close it out with “Say It To Me Now.”