The chaotic scenes that continue to unfold in Afghanistan are gut-wrenching.
The incompetence of President Biden is more than a foreign policy misstep, it’s a failure of historic proportions. It is a global embarrassment.
Back in February of 2021, Biden declared on the world stage at the virtual Munich Security Conference that “America is back” and promised to “earn back our position of trusted leadership.”
President Donald J. Trump spent four years Making America Great Again, and thanks to Biden, in less than 10 days, all that respect and credibility is gone.
Front pages of international newspapers covering the avoidable man-made crisis in Afghanistan prove this.
In the UK, the Sun referred to Biden as “Joke Biden” and said he was “humiliated and alone.”
Also in the UK, The Daily Telegraph said he “faces international backlash” and the Daily Mail called this his “fault.”
The Financial Times described the scenes in Afghanistan as “absolute chaos.”
In Canada, the Toronto Sun’s front page headline read “Left to Die.”
Italy’s newspaper La Stampa said it was an “apocalypse.”
Here at home, The Wall Street Journal said this crisis would “go down as one of the most shameful in history by a Commander in Chief.”
CNN commentators on live TV called this a “political disaster.”
The Washington Post editorial headline read, “The debacle in Afghanistan is the worst kind: avoidable.”
And this weekend, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Biden’s “abandonment” of Afghanistan was “tragic, dangerous and unnecessary.”
And dangerous is right.
Biden’s government cannot even guarantee the safety of Americans stuck in Afghanistan. They must find their own way to the airport via Taliban-controlled checkpoints.
And now Americans are being warned against traveling to the airport in Kabul altogether because of the new threats posed by Taliban fighters.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently admitted that Americans have been beaten by the Taliban, a point that contradicts the clueless president.
Americans – both military and civilian knew what they signed up for when going to Afghanistan. It’s a dangerous place, and your life is always at risk. But no one signed up for the avoidable catastrophe that President Biden has now created.
As a Department of Defense civilian staffer on a special Iraq Task Force that reported directly to then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, I knew the dangers of going to Baghdad – a trip that I made fourteen times between 2007-10.
But never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine the Commander in Chief – the President of the United States, deliberately placing my life in danger.
Today however, is a different story.
President Biden ignored the intelligence on Afghanistan and now American [civilian] lives are in jeopardy. And American credibility is shattered.
We are the greatest country in the history of the world, and no one trusts us.
And now Taliban fighters have seized billions of dollars of U.S.-made weapons and equipment – including helicopters, trucks, Humvees, drones and airplanes.
You can bet that our adversaries, including China, Russia and Iran are all rushing into Afghanistan to analyze this newly seized treasure trove of highly classified equipment.
Think about this. We are living at a time when Democrats want to defund the police, and now the leader of the Democratic Party has just armed the Taliban.
Shame on President Biden.
American is less safe and the threat of terrorist activity remains high as we approach the 20th anniversary of September 11.
And if we continue down this path that Biden has paved all on his own, we’ll have more than just a reputation to rebuild.
Mark Vargas currently hosts a radio show, Mark My Words with Mark Vargas on AM 560 The Answer. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Vargas served as a civilian within the Office of the Secretary of Defense on a special Iraq task force. In 2009 he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Global War on Terrorism Civilian Service Medal. His civilian service included 14 trips to Baghdad. Follow Mark on Twitter: @markavargas. Read Mark Vargas's Reports — Click Here Now.