Given the politically expedient, knee-jerk reaction of Joe Biden and his administration’s pathetic habit of cowardly blaming everything they fu screw up on Donald Trump — while brazenly taking credit for Trump’s successes — National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday raised more than a few eyebrows by actually acknowledging that the cataclysmic fall of Afghanistan “unfolded at unexpected speed.”

Then, as if on cue, Sullivan said something stupid.

Biden, Sullivan said, stands by his decision to withdraw U.S. troops. Presumably, exactly the way he withdrew them — as if it was a singular decision. It was not. Nor should it have been.

From retired 4-Star Gen. Jack Keane to Mike Pompeo, former CIA Director and Secretary of State under Donald Trump, and CNN’s Jake Tapper, of all people, Biden has been skewered non-stop for three days and counting for his irresponsible, haphazard, seemingly plan-less, jerking of U.S. forces out of a war-torn “country” (collection of provinces) in which the United States has spent nearly $1 trillion dollars and suffered nearly 2,500 military fatalities over the past 20 years.

Yet, just like that — everything went “poof.” Everything.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” has become the consensus phrase to pass judgment — yes, pass judgment, and harshly so— on what has happened. “Biden’s Saigon” has become reality.

Yet the most incompetent and out-of-touch president of the United States in at least modern history “stands by his decision.” It was never about leaving Afghanistan, Joe — it was always about how we leave.

But, please, Mr. Sullivan, tell us more about what caught Biden and the administration by surprise.

Via Fox News:

“The president did not think it was inevitable that the Taliban were going to take control of Afghanistan. He thought the Afghan national security forces could step up and fight because we spent 20 years, tens of billions of dollars, training them, giving them the best equipment, giving them support of U.S. forces for 20 years.”

OK — anything else?

“When push came to shove, they decided not to step up and fight for their country.” [Which Sullivan said forced Biden to decide whether U.S. men and women should be] “put in the middle of another country’s civil war when their own army won’t fight to defend them.”

OK, again. One question: Then why did Biden ridiculously try to foist the blame on Donald Trump?

Yeah, I know — Biden explained (justified his disaster) that his “predecessor” had started the withdrawal, so in effect, his hands were tied. Nonsense.

Were your boss’s hands tied by Trump’s immigration and border control policies? Were his hands tied by decisions Trump made during the COVID pandemic? We could continue. The answer to every similar question is “Hell, no.” Then why Afghanistan? I got this. Because he used Trump’s planned withdrawal as an excuse to support his own narrative and political decision. Thanks for playing, Jake.

Biden has made several spectacularly ignorant and ill-informed comments about the disintegration in Afghanistan over the last five weeks. One of the top two, as reported by my colleague Nick Arama on Sunday, he made just four days ago.

Nick’s article was published as Chinook helicopters were landing on the roof of the U.S. embassy in Kabul.

“There’s gonna be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

Yeah, I got nothin’.

Joe Biden: “There’s gonna be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.” https://t.co/gYkxaHR6Ml pic.twitter.com/2cw7rO8bgq

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 12, 2021

And on July 8, just weeks ago, Biden said the following.

“Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable? No, it is not. Because you—the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped—as well-equipped as any army in the world—and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable.”

A reporter asked: “Do you trust the Taliban, Mr. President?” To which Biden replied:

“Do I trust the Taliban? No. But I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more re— more competent in terms of conducting war.”

Yet, as Jake Sullivan said, the fall of Afghanistan “unfolded at unexpected speed.” WHY?

How could this administration get it so wrong?

After 20 years on the ground, including, I would assume, continual intelligence gathering, the sketchy history of the Afghan military, and the investment of so much American blood and treasure, how could Biden & Co. get it so wrong?

It didn’t have to be this way.