One of the claims you have heard from Joe Biden was that he was somehow locked into the deal that President Donald Trump made in Afghanistan to withdraw, basically blaming Trump.
But there are several problems with that argument. The problem isn’t the withdrawing, it’s how it was done in the incompetent way that Biden did it. Not to mention, Biden’s plan even before Trump was just to withdraw and to heck with the allies or whatever mess he left, as we reported. So he can’t legitimately blame Trump now.
Beyond that, the deal that Trump had worked out was conditioned on a variety of promises that the Taliban broke — they were supposed to work on a power-sharing agreement with the Afghan government. They didn’t.
The @WSJ editors accurately, succinctly damn @POTUS @JoeBiden. When Taliban violated the Doha agreement —premised on a negotiated power sharing— the U.S. was free to keep Bagram, it’s 2500 troops and NATO’s 5000, to use air power. He could have saved thousands. He chose not to. pic.twitter.com/uIoHlWWaAn
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) August 16, 2021
Biden withdrew anyway and gave up Bagram airbase despite their failure to comply. That wasn’t Trump — that was Biden. So Biden wasn’t even adhering to the deal which Trump had worked out. That base would have been vital to helping get people out safely, as Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) explained.
On top of that, Biden pushed the withdrawal date back anyway from May to September 11. So he obviously didn’t feel a need to adhere to it. He’s blown off all kinds of Trump deals, so he really can’t use that to hide behind.
President Donald Trump explained last night on Sean Hannity’s show how the deal was conditions-based, that it was vitiated by the Taliban’s actions. He also affirmed that he would have gotten Americans and the allies out before he would have withdrawn the troops.
Trump is asked what would have happened if the Taliban had taken over more than was in their agreement: "We would have hit them very hard." pic.twitter.com/jaLaklevyP
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) August 18, 2021
Trump pointed out how he threatened the head of the Taliban if he didn’t comply with the agreement and harmed Americans. Here, in a nutshell, is the fundamental difference between Trump and Biden. Peace through strength and with a promised threat.
Trump said that he warned presumed Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in discussions last year that the United States will strike back tenfold if an American was harmed or the militants encroached on unapproved areas.
That deal, he said, appears to be mooted as the Taliban raged through the country and took Kabul within a matter of days; while Americans and Westerners are trapped within.
“I told him upfront … ‘let me just tell you right now that if anything happens to Americans or anybody else or if you ever come over to our land, we will hit you with a force that no country has ever been hit with before. A force so great to that you won’t even believe it.'”
Trump also told him he knew what village he lived in. If that isn’t a message, I don’t know what is. Can you imagine Biden ever saying that to someone? Instead, we get “please let our people through, Mr. Tally-ban.”
Trump was also upset by the number of Americans stranded by Biden in Afghanistan and the images of the people clinging to the plane at the Kabul Airport.
“You are dealing with thousands and thousands of Americans and others that are stranded and very dangerously… in Afghanistan. So it’s something that you can’t even believe.”
Trump said the scenes from the weekend where desperate Afghans clung to the side of an Air Force cargo plane’s fuselage and later fell to their deaths when the aircraft reached altitude makes the U.S. Embassy airlift evacuation in Saigon in 1975 look small.
“I looked at that big monster cargo plane yesterday with people grabbing the side and trying to get flown out of Afghanistan because of their incredible fear – and they’re blowing off of the plane from 2,000 feet up in the air, nobody has ever seen anything like that,” he said. “That blows the helicopters in Vietnam away. That is not even a contest. It has been the most humiliating period of time that I’ve ever seen.”
It’s hard to disagree with that.
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