Who Would Have Retreated Better Than Biden?

The problem in Afghanistan is not Biden’s incompetent administration as much as it is a policy that was guaranteed to fail.

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Republicans have a great deal to say about the incompetence of the Biden administration in evacuating Afghanistan, and they most assuredly have a big, fat point. Sadly, given the president’s decades of experience in foreign policy, the ineptitude was entirely predictable. Biden’s trademark mix of naïveté and swagger has been very much on display throughout this misadventure.

Biden’s track record in the Senate includes being a leading proponent for cutting off all funding to South Vietnam, which resulted in the chaotic retreat of 1975 and subsequent slaughter that set the template for the current Afghan disaster. Biden’s clamorous opposition of the policies of the Reagan administration that helped win the Cold War was legendary, particularly his hatred for the missile defense technology that we later learned was crucial in ending the Soviet threat and now helps protect America and its allies around the world. Biden voted against the first war with Iraq in 1990, for the second one in 2003, and opposed the 2007 troop surge there. That’s 0 for 3 on just one country.

No politician escapes failures on foreign policy, an arena in which the effort is usually to find the least bad option. But Biden is a special case. Through his 36 years in the Senate, he was brashly outspoken about his positions, whether it was demanding U.S. ground forces be deployed in the Balkan religious wars of the 1990s or in blocking aid to fight Soviet-backed dictators in Central America in the 1980s. But a senator can pretty much honk like a goose about foreign policy all he or she wants and never be held accountable. Presidents get all the blame when things go sideways abroad. Even so, Biden definitely would have been on a pretty short list of the senators most likely to fail at a foreign policy task as challenging as Afghanistan because of his brand of arrogant gullibility.

But who would have gotten the United States out of Afghanistan better? Which politician who might plausibly be in the Oval Office today would have done a better job?

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  1. Avatar photo
    Anne W (Raw5254)

    I’m trying to be open minded to both sides of the argument, but lately it’s all so depressing. Between this, the upswing in Covid cases, and that ungodly $3 trillion plus package(s), I’m about ready to climb into a hole.

    I want to be informed, but can’t we just start getting some positive news?

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    Ben Connelly

    If I’d known all this about Biden, I would have been less bullish about his presidency and American foreign policy and less surprised by the Afghanistan debacle. Oh well. I didn’t vote for either him or Trump. I’m with you 100%, Chris, about the chances that Trump or someone else would have done this better. Maybe a President Klobuchar or Bloomberg would have avoided this fiasco (by not pulling out). Or, (one can hope), a President Ben Sasse.

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    Everybody Digs Bill Evans

    I thought Obamacare went into law in 2010.

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      Ben Connelly

      The website went up in 2013.

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        Ben Connelly

        And crashed immediately

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    Melissa

    “When we look at the Republicans who might win their party’s nomination in 2024, who do you see who would have followed Trump’s plan and done so substantially better than Biden? Rand Paul? Josh Hawley? Donald Trump Jr.? They make Biden look like Dwight Eisenhower. “.

    I can think of other 2024 potential nominees like Nikki Haley, Tim Scott and even Larry Hogan who are more likely to win. And they would not have left our people behind. Not many Democrats would have left our people behind.

    Just Joe Biden.

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    Stephanie

    A lot of spin here. Looks like partisan spin. How bout everyone take a deep breath, stop the bombast, let the dust clear and see if it really turns out to be a "failure."

    And who defines "failure" anyway. Sort out the inevitable and the unavoidable and you have thin gruel.

    Start with the assumption that any further investment in this misadventure would be more sunk costs, and it all looks quite different.

    The Taliban definitely got the better of Trump & Pompeo, but they had already spent 10+ years winning the hearts and minds of the Muslim population outside the urban centers. You could call it realpolitik on the part of Trump & Pompeo. The Ghani government was a Potemkin village.

    The only choice for a long time now, but concealed from the US public by our military leaders, is just what kind of Muslim theocracy is going to rule Afghanistan, not if.

    And "Star Wars" SDI: give me a break! SDI program ended years ago. And it wasn't any kind of pioneer. Systems like that had been in development and under study for years. Reagan just used the idea of such a hypothetical missile defense to scare the Soviets. How successful that was is debatable, since it was internal UISSR factors that brought down the collapse, not Reagan.

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    Dan

    If I were the Taliban, after 20 years of fighting the US military and managing to survive and learn, I would have known that my biggest strategic weakness was the end of fighting season, and I would have prepared appropriately. Thus I would have made sure to take over the country as fast as possible no matter what.
    The US Generals would have said "there is no pulling out, we are forever there", which eventually would force us into a war with Pakistan in which we'd have to conquer Pakistan in order to secure safe passage into one of the most landlocked military protectorates in the world. And eventually we would have had to decide whether or not to grant Afghanistan US territory status, which would bring into question US citizenship for Afghanis, and eventually statehood. Which would bring a whole new set of problems.
    The US Army trained the Afghan Army and equipped it as it would itself--a ground force overwhelmingly reliant on airpower. This was the exact wrong move for Afghanistan, but unfortunately our vast network of defense manufacturers only had variants of "Ground force overwhelmingly reliant on airpower" to sell to Afghanistan--because that's what our politics and license network allows for. And we sure weren't going to allow other nations to offer other strategic solutions that might better work--that's too much money on the line and there were too many defense contractors with litigious law firms that would muck up any efforts.
    We were always doomed to fail in Afghanistan. While I agree with the editorial from last week, I fail to see how waiting until the end of fighting season, or reneging and staying in forever, would have been better. We take our defeat, lick our wounds, and strive to do better next time. And there will be a next time. There always is.

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    Hrodland

    I suspect Americans still don't fully understand how this will affect us.

    Before Britain's Suez disaster, it was a world power. Ditto for France in in Indochina. Afterward, they were taken far less seriously. The British compensated by being our best buddies. The French by being French.

    This is going to affect every aspect of America's power. It means few will now see the US as a role model in anything. It will deal a death blow to the woke culture. It will affect how easily we can borrow money in future.

    Trump certainly did start the trend. But so far Biden has done little to stop it.

    He still has a chance. That has always been my ulitmate point.

    But first he has to stop digging the hole he finds himself--and us--in.

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  8. Mary Stine

    I always enjoy your take on things, Mr. Stirewalt. As Bush the Elder said, you get to the nut of the issue. I can only sadly nod my head on this.
    After a great deal of screaming I have calmed down and have a question: is it possible for the US to now mount a less targetable reconnaiscence presence all around the perimeters of Afghanistan, or do we have that already? Can more pressure be brought to bear on Pakistan and do we have a military base there now?

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    BW

    Swing and a miss Chris. I think most anyone could have done a better job.

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    Victor Clairmont

    As entertaining as your counterfactual is, it is irrelevant since Biden is president.

    And he now goes down as the one with one of the worst blunders in American history.

    Congratulations Biden. So far, it looks like you are being remembered in infamy.

    Three more years to go.

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      Pat Riot

      You wish.

      The last our our people just left Afghanistan.

      You hated Biden before two weeks ago and you would have hated him afterwards regardless of what happened. For actually persuadable people all that's going to matter is that we're out of Afghanistan.

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        Victor Clairmont

        Wish what?

        He left hundreds of Americans in Afghanistan.

        Biden has lied every step of the way.

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