Now, I have to go into what Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) is right about, because she isn’t right very often.

Although, naturally because she is Liz Cheney, she’s also desperately wrong in the same remarks — because she just can’t let go of the Trump hate.

She did an interview this morning with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” about what’s happening in Afghanistan.

Rep. Liz Cheney on Afghanistan: "If you look at what it would have taken in terms of maintaining the status quo — 2,500 forces on the ground conducting counterterrorism — this disaster, this catastrophe we're watching unfold across Afghanistan, did not have to happen." pic.twitter.com/X7wiokW4M3

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 15, 2021

Cheney:

“We’ve now created a situation where, as we get to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, we are surrendering Afghanistan to the terrorist organization that housed al Qaeda when they plotted and planned the attacks against us.

It’s inexcusable. It’s devastating. And it is going to have ramifications not just for Afghanistan, not just for us in Afghanistan, not just for the war on terror, but globally for America’s role in the world, the extent to which America’s adversaries know they can threaten us, and our allies are questioning this morning whether they can count on us for anything. [….]

This is not ending the war. What this is doing actually is perpetuating it. What we have done and what we’re seeing in Afghanistan is instead of keeping 2,500 forces on the ground, which with air power, working with the Afghans, we were able to keep the Taliban at bay. We were able to prevent the Taliban from establishing safe havens with 2,500 to 3,500 troops on the ground.

What we’re seeing now is actually the opposite of ending war. What we’re seeing now is a policy that will ensure — ensure, that we will in fact have to have our children and our grandchildren continuing to fight this war at much higher costs. [….]

This has been an epic failure across the board, one we’re going to pay for for years to come.”

She’s most definitely right that this is going to lead to more terrorist action. Now, there will be an Islamic terrorist state from which they can launch attacks, fully protected, even as we see the resurgence of al- Qaeda, according to the new DHS advisory. The Taliban opened the prison in Kabul and let out all the militants.

Now, whether that means you have to keep Americans there forever is another question. No, you don’t have to commit to a Cheney ‘forever war’ strategy.

But the failure to deal with the situation is all on Biden. Because, while they would have likely taken over anyway given the weakness of the Afghan government, Biden frittered away the time and failed to explore any other options. He failed to support the government in any way, which is one of the reasons they caved so quickly — because they had no idea what help they could expect from the U.S. Many then decided to throw in with the Taliban to save themselves.

Cheney on Afghanistan: "President Biden bears responsibility for making this decision, but there's no question President Trump, his administration, Secretary Pompeo, they also bear very significant responsibility for this. They walked down this path of legitimizing the Taliban." pic.twitter.com/XxqHhMPeZA

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 15, 2021

Cheney is wrong in continuing to push the ‘forever war.’ She was also wrong in blaming President Donald Trump. Trump hasn’t been in office for months, as our Andrew Malcolm points out in his new column today. The nature of this withdrawal is all on Biden, there is no way that Trump would have let it come to such a pass.

So, if Cheney and the Never Trump people want to look at who’s responsible here, they maybe should look at anyone who supported Biden — because that’s what’s led to this mess.