2 Presidents combine for 1 major mess

President Joe Biden stepped on the booby trap that collapsed Afghanistan in on itself, but the trap had been set by his predecessor, President Donald J. Trump.

The author of The Art of the Deal (assuming he wrote it himself) set the trap by “dealing” with the religious fanatical Taliban, cutting the Afghan government out of the talks, thus sending the unintentional but probably correct message that the U.S. had no real respect for the government headed by what’s-his-name. (His name is Ashraf Ghani.)

A cat has a better idea of what’s inside a tin of Puss’n Boots than Trump had of what was going on in Afghanistan.

When he cut a separate deal with the turbaned maniacs, he got nothing concrete from them, he sidelined Ghani, he cut the heart out of the military, and gave a withdrawal timeline to the Taliban so they could wait us out, which is exactly what they did.

After a weekend of watching Afghanistan collapse like a sand castle in a squall, because of his actions,  Biden emerged from hiding to address the nation at the odd time of 4 p.m. It could not be less of a prime time.

Was it timed as a courtesy for the evening newscast? Was it chosen because it’s a time when people are at work and not engaged? Was it because (as right wing nuts believe)  Biden loses his ability to concentrate after dinner time? 

In a dark blue suit over a white shirt and gray tie, he spoke for about 20 minutes and took no questions. He also took no blame.

The best argument he made: It is wrong for him to ask Americans to fight for Afghanistan when Afghans will not fight for themselves, That is a powerful argument.

His worst argument was the claim that “we planned for every contingency.”

The last person to use that line was George Custer.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Biden dismissed the idea of Afghanistan collapsing as “highly unlikely.”

That was shortly after he rejected the advice of his generals to go slow in removing troops.

He blamed Trump for sticking him with a bad deal with the Taliban. Biden could have torn it up, as Trump did with the Paris climate accords.

Doing that might have ended the cease fire, he said, even though the U.S. ended “combat missions” years ago.

He said the U.S. was moving quickly to “execute plans we had in place.”

The problem is this: Our embassy is closed, operations have shifted to the airport, and video showed the chaos there.

He said that what is happening now could have happened five years ago, or could happen 15 years from now.

But it didn’t happen 5 years ago, and with better leadership, it might not happen 15 years from now.

He correctly noted that our goal was to overthrow the Taliban, pursue Osama bin Laden, and make sure Afghanistan would not be used by terrorists.

We succeeded.

But with our departure, and the religious fanatics in charge, can we count on the Taliban’s word not to support terrorists?

Let me remind the eternal optimists: The Taliban have a great deal more in common with their fellow Islamists than they do with us, the Crusaders.

Thanks to the blunders of Trump and Biden, Afghanistan is back in play.

Dumb and dumber.