RUTHFULLY YOURS

Only a month ago President Biden stood in the East Room of the White House and assured the American people that “there is going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.” Today, the State Department announced that several thousand additional military personnel will be sent to Kabul to provide security as we airlift our civilians from our embassy.

That’s because President Biden’s strategy for withdrawal of our GIs from Afghanistan has become a debacle. We are not saying that Mr. Biden is to blame for this war. That blame attaches to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Yet in his first major war decision — to refuse, as our enemies are on the march, to adjust his plan of appeasement but rather to insist on withdrawing our troops — he has proven himself to be a catastrophe as a war leader.

And one who can’t give his own countrymen straight talk. The news today is that Mr. Biden is rushing something like 3,000 troops to Afghanistan to “help,” as NBC reported it, “secure the withdrawal of most staff from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul” amid “growing alarm over a Taliban military offensive.” NBC cited “officials.” The NBC quoted the Pentagon press secretary as saying one Army battalion and two Marine battalions will head to the airport at Kabul.

The State Department spokesman, Ned Price, is quoted as telling reporters: “We are further reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation.” What diplomatic malarky. The State Department cited the Taliban’s advances and rising violence, NBC reported. That’s been plain to Democrats and Republicans for weeks, as Mr. Biden insists on getting our GIs out of Afghanistan whatever enemy advances are occuring.

Mr. Price stressed that the “embassy remains open” and claimed: “This is not an abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not the wholesale withdrawal. What this is is a reduction in the size of our civilian footprint.” More malarky. PresidentTrump made his own mistakes on this head, as the Wall Street Journal marked well. He treated with the Taliban and complained about “endless wars.” What this debacle is the result of, though, is Bidenism.

Since Mr. Biden announced our departure, the Taliban has seized control of half of Afghanistan’s 400 districts, ten out of the 34 provincial capitals, and several major border crossings. As they press the attack, they are widening the slaughter they had already begun, of everyone and anyone that fought with us. Today, they control more territory than they have since 2001. Meanwhile, Herat and Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second and third largest cities, are at imminent risk.

America’s own intelligence is now predicting that Kabul will fall within 90 days. If it does, everything we have fought for will be lost. Twenty years. Two trillion dollars. Tens of thousands of lives, 2,000 of them Americans. And for the third time in three generations — Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan — the world will learn that it is more dangerous to be an ally of America than an enemy, that America cannot be trusted to see a fight through.

The damage to our alliances and partnerships will be painful — and real. Our allies will watch and wonder who is next. Free Korea? Japan? Israel? As the faith of our friends erodes, will they look elsewhere — some even to our adversaries — for protection? China is certainly looking for takers. So are the Russians. Who among our foes is not encouraged by the latest news? How is the world going to describe the Biden Doctrine?