Since the Taliban has overrun Kabul and the US airlift mission began, the media has turned on President Biden, and some Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are even threatening impeachment. But despite the media storm, Biden allies and administration officials told Reuters that the president is brushing off the criticism since the war in Afghanistan was so unpopular.
“The public opinion is pretty damn clear that Americans wanted out of the ongoing war and don’t want to get back in. It’s true today and it’s going to be true in six months,” one unnamed Biden ally told Reuters. “It isn’t about not caring or being empathetic about what’s going on over there, but worrying about what’s happening in America.”
A new opinion poll from The Associated Press found 62 percent of Americans don’t believe the war in Afghanistan was worth fighting. The poll was taken from August 12th to August 16th, as the Afghan government was collapsing and the Taliban was entering Kabul.
The unpopularity of the war is clearly being taken into consideration by Biden’s speechwriter. While addressing the media this week, the president has made a point to argue how futile the war was and how the Afghan government would have collapsed whether the US pulled out now or five years from now.
“If Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that 1 year — one more year, five more years, or 20 more years of US military boots on the ground would’ve made any difference,” Biden said Monday.
Still, Biden’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest point of his presidency, and his administration will have to answer to the media for whatever unfolds in Afghanistan over the next few years.
Not quite so; Americans are upset about allowing all those Afghan migrants into the U.S.. Biden’s domestic politics instincts are otherwise dead-on. And unlike Trump, Biden understands the centre-undecided far better.
In every Western NATO country, whatever remains of conservatives are mostly against more migrants from anywhere, a sentiment spreading to the centre/undecided vote.
A full withdrawal from Afghanistan will greatly aid the Democrats at the polls in 2022. Migrants and COVID-1984 will be the main spoiler.
However, a full Afghan pullout would take the Democrats over the top at this point, and any botched withdrawal forgotten as long as Afghanistan isn’t America’s problem in any way shape or form.
The firestorm of reaction to the pullout, which was clearly the correct policy overall and which was not executed in a particularly bad way either, shows that domestic politics is the real issue here. Very, very little of the over the top neo con and neo lib outrage, the big mouth, know-it-all veteran bellyaching, the feminist handwringing, the crocodile tears being shed for the quislings who “trusted us” (and our hundred dollar bills!) but are “being left behind,” the reactionary yahooing over the “cut and run,” etc, has, even on its face, anything much to do with the USA’s position in the world, the Great Power rivalries with Russia and China, or even a renewed fear of “terrorism” somehow originating in Afghanistan. No, it is the politics of the USA admitting, for the first time since 1975, and only the second time in any kind of living memory, that it has lost a war. And openly retreating from the theater of that war.
That is what drives the bus. For Republicans, it’s a God send. For Dems who want to position themselves as against the Administration, it is a nice opportunity. For the neo con and neo lib media (which is almost all of the media), it is chance to become relevant again. Yes, most of the public wanted out of Afghanistan. But most of the public wants a lot of policies, but that doesn’t make those policies easy to get from the polical system. Nor does it mean that organized, entrenched opposistion to those outcomes just fades away at the mention of poll numbers.
LBJ and Nixon refused to pull the plug on Vietnam, even though both knew the war was lost. Ford tried to blame Congress. Bush Junior cut a deal to get us out of Iraq, but kicked the can into Obama’s Administration. Bush and Obama refused to pull the plug on Afghanistan. Trump cut a deal to get us out, but, like, Bush Junior, kicked the can into the Biden Administration. Even with Obama and Iraq, the President, who ran specifically and successfully on an anti war message against Hillary Clinton in the primaries and John McCain in the general election, didn’t have to face a Saigon, US Embassy, 1975 moment. The US military was able to leave Iraq with some degree of dignity, as the SOFA with a more or less functioning government had run out. There was no scene like that in ’75, or the ones we are seeing now at Kabul airport. And even that was something that Bush Junior didn’t want, and that Obama quickly went back on, once the supposed threat of ISIS emerged. No, what Biden is doing is unique among US Presidents. Admitting defeat, pulling out, and NOT blaming Congress for the decision. Taking the heat. We’ll see how it goes. I have my fingers crossed.
LBJ did. Nixon committed treason shutting it down to win an election.
Nice summary of political tactics from both sides. When I do the math (Venn or logic diagrams), boundaries blur between Neo-cons and Neo-libs. Those swamp creatures have a lot in common, if they are not the same shape-shifting group. They shape-shift like Amoeba parasites, sucking the life out of humanity.
Neo con and neo lib are pretty close. Just so strange to me how not only neo cons and neo libs, but so many reactionaries and progressives, too, basically, the whole spectrum of US domestic politics, can close ranks in favor of an interventionist FP. And how all four groups can unite behind criticism of ending a war that was clearly lost, years ago, if not before it even started, and was a disaster from any perspective (US national interest/geo politics, monetary gain or military glory, advancement of progressive values or protection of human rights, or anything at all, really, of any value, to anyone, no matter what the political POV). It just shows how insidious and ubiquitous the mentality of militarism and imperialism can be, and how it sinks in and destroys the political discourse of a whole nation.
Amen, brother.
I believe that the withdrawal from Afghanistan signals the end of our participation in what is known as “The Great Game of Central Asia” which itself will come to an end because it can only survive with substantial US military presence there. That is most likely why Putin has warned “no US bases” in Tajikistan or any of the other Northern Stan’s.
And the end of the Great Game must have enormous political and economic consequences. I have not the foggiest idea what they will be.
Yawn, whichever party came to the white house in 2020 would get hammered for staying or going. No matter. The loudest critics are just partisan dirtbags.
I have some serious doubts about this. There are so many US foreign
warsinterventions that Afghanistan has barely dented the consciousness of US citizens. Example:The Same Broadcast TV Networks Criticizing Biden Gave Afghanistan 5 Minutes Of Coverage Last Year
Add to that the lack of coverage of the anti-war voices by the Corporate Media as well as the wall-to-wall televising of the “disaster” in Afghanistan, I think Joe Sixpack is going to blame somebody. Probably Biden.
Answer to the media? F the media. They were all along for this joyride since 2001. They didn’t become WOKE until after Iraq was decimated. THEN they started asking questions of the “shock and awe” Bush administration. They did the same crap with Trump in 2015-16…falling over each other for ACCESS. THEN they want to vet him AFTER he becomes president. F the media. They just want a story they can manufacture into outrage and thus viewership. They cared not one damn bit about Afghanistan until the chaos of the evacuations began. It was a non-story before then, which is one reason why this crap has gone on for so long.