Media Piles on Biden Giving an Afghan Pass to W Bush/Cheney and Trump/Pompeo Where it Correctly Belongs
It is time the media starts reporting the news again as it is rather than as they want it to be
Joe Biden has been President for seven months. America's Afghan War has been going on - dishonestly - for 20 years. The total and almost instant collapse of the Afghan army caught Biden and others off guard. Though such an eventuality had been predicted, it was hardly anticipated in less than a week.
But Biden and the US military have since reorganized creating a more clear and orderly process overall. Why hasn't that been reported on rather than continuing to catastrophize Biden alone?
Initial chaos reigned as the Taliban walked into Kabul for which Biden and the US military almost couldn’t have been fully prepared. Afghanistan’s President Ghani was reportedly part of an attempt to create a transitional government with the Taliban which fell apart when he secretly fled the country.
Why have W Bush and Dick Cheney, the reasons for the entire war as they lied from the start while propping deeply corrupt Afghan governments one after another not been identified? How on earth does Bush get such a pass? Then, after their initial attack on Afghanistan, Bush/Cheney simply lost interest and started a criminal war in Iraq when the focus should have stayed in Afghanistan. Why hasn't that been reported?
More recently, Trump had Pakistan release the Taliban co-founder after 8 years in a Pakistani prison in 2020 so he could participate in Trump and Mike Pompeo’s Afghan government free meetings with the Taliban in Doha. It was there that Pompeo and Trump fundamentally handed Afghanistan back to the brutal Taliban as they, among other ill conceived actions, announced a unliteral unconditional removal of US military by May. This also hasn’t been much reported.
While answers will still be needed for the continuing evacuation process, despite such pronouncements by the breathless American and British media, the events of the past couple weeks will likely not create huge long term political costs for Biden (no matter how hard a cowardly and directly responsibly GOP might try).
Biden does have accountability and the initial evacuation was botched. But that is also now reasonably back together to include President Biden’s announcement that US troops would remain in Kabul after August 30 if ALL evacuations were not yet completed. Has that been reported on much?
I would still like to see the 6000 US military and allies create protected and escorted safe corridors through Kabul to the airport for all Americans and all still at risk Afghanis who risked their lives and future to support America and our allies in Afghanistan. I would also offer seats to all women; young or old who want to get out since, by their sex alone, they are at extreme risk with Taliban control
Biden should have been better prepared in the shorter term. But it was the still unindicted War Criminals, W Bush and Cheney, who laid and created the foundation for the past week plus. Trump’s then attempt for a deeply ill-advised, ignorant and uninformed foreign policy 'victory' for his failing presidential campaign sealed the deal – and the fate of so many Afghan civilians.
I think better journalism would include to no longer demonize and misrepresent Joe Biden and report on this story of 20 years in the making far more thoroughly and honestly.
I've read that over 90% of Americans support Biden's complete removal of US troops while 90% of the media do not. I realize these numbers are a bit melodramatic but the point is well taken. The media must return to reporting the news as it is rather than what they want it to be and stop using GOP press releases as a guide
And the Taliban won't find the same impoverished beaten down citizens they did 20 years ago. Kabul is now a large active city. Twenty years of freedoms, media and social media, jobs and income, families, women with careers and in school. The old anti-Taliban mujahedeen are now reorganizing to include Afghan soldiers and special forces.
It's not ending at all but, I think, just getting starting. Perhaps America’s extended presence — the blood lost — won’t wind up the waste being pressed by the media after all.