Clueless in Washington

I happened to catch an article today by Christian Datoc. It was published online Friday in the Washington Examiner and was titled, “Three Afghanistan claims from the Biden team that aged poorly.” It’s really a pretty good article, and highlights three claims repeated again and again:

1. The situation in Afghanistan does not remotely resemble the situation that faced the US in Vietnam in 1975. As President Biden stated: "They’re not remotely comparable…There’s going to be no circumstance when you’re going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan." Well, maybe not live on the news, but those helos are sure flying a lot of folks from the embassy to the airport.
2. Chinese involvement with the Taliban is “positive.” That’s what our Secretary of State believes. Last month members of the Taliban leadership met with Chinese officials in China. Their purpose was to discuss future peaceful relationships between China and a new, Taliban Afghanistan. As Secretary Blinken said later, "No one has an interest in a military takeover of the country by the Taliban, the restoration of an Islamic emirate," and indicated it was good China was encouraging a "peaceful resolution of the conflict.” It’s hard to believe an American Secretary of State could be this naive.
3. Jen Psaki, the President’s translator, stated the administration is certain the Taliban won’t be returning Afghanistan to a kind of pre-2001 medieval Islamist society. Why? Because they will have “to make an assessment about what they want their role to be in the international community.” She then added words that must have sent chills down the spines of the Taliban leaders. Our negotiators, she said, have made it clear “the international community is going to watch closely how the Taliban behaves.” I suppose the big question is: What exactly will the international community do, especially since Afghanistan’s neighbors seem willing to congratulate the Taliban on their victory over the hated Americans?

Sad, sad, sad…especially for all those who served honorably in the blasted place. I wonder, too, what the Taiwanese and South Koreans are thinking about their chief ally today?