‘Only group he didn’t blame was the TALIBAN’: US media blast Biden for shifting responsibility after ‘wilful abandonment’ of Afghanistan where ZERO American soldiers have died in last 18 months… but some left-wing press support his ‘correct choic

• US newspapers blast US President Joe Biden today for his ‘blame shifting’ over deepening Afghanistan crisis
• He criticised Afghan leaders and military for refusing to fight while defending his decision to withdraw troops
• Wall Street Journal editorial said that Mr Biden ‘refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal’  
• Washington Post editorial said he could have listened to the ‘many seasoned hands’ giving him alternatives
• Editorial in the New York Post said ‘he alone is responsible’ for Taliban takeover which is an ‘utter catastrophe’
• But other papers including New York Times defend Mr Biden saying ‘calamity cannot be laid alone’ at his feet

The US media blasted Joe Biden today for his ‘blame shifting’ over the Afghanistan crisis after the President criticised Afghan leaders and military for refusing to fight while defending his decision to withdraw troops.

The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that Mr Biden ‘refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal while blaming others’ and the ‘one group he conspicuously did not blame was the Taliban’. 

A Washington Post editorial said he could have listened to the ‘many seasoned hands’ giving him alternatives to withdrawal, adding that him blaming others was ‘unseemly’ given that 2,448 US service members died in 20 years.

An editorial in the New York Post pointed out that no US soldiers have died in Afghanistan in 18 months, and ‘he alone is responsible’ for the Taliban takeover which is an ‘utter catastrophe, for Afghans and for world security’.

Meanwhile an opinion piece in the Left-leaning CNN by a retired soldier said Afghanistan’s collapse was ‘wilful abandonment’ and that the withdrawal of US forces ‘left the tribes of Afghanistan little choice but capitulation’.

However, other US media defended Mr Biden today, including the New York Times which said the ‘calamity cannot be laid alone at President Biden’s feet’ and that his decision to pull out all US troops took ‘courage and wisdom’.

An opinion piece in USA Today said the President ‘bears some of the blame for the catastrophic collapse’ but ‘there is plenty to go around’, adding that Mr Biden was ‘dealt his losing hand by Bush, Obama and Trump’. 

In The Atlantic an opinion article said ‘no critic of Biden’s or Trump’s withdrawal decisions has offered a coherent alternative plan beyond indefinite American occupation’, adding that the withdrawal was ‘not a strategic failure’.

And a Los Angeles Times opinion piece said Mr Biden made the ‘tough and correct choice to withdraw and end a losing effort in search of an unattainable goal’ and that he was ‘right to stand by his decision’ to end the mission.  

It comes after Mr Biden’s blunt address to the US nation last night, in which he said he ‘stood squarely’ behind the withdrawal despite the Taliban retaking the country in a matter of days following the collapse of Afghan forces.

There are at least 40,000 people who need evacuating from Afghanistan, including some 30,000 Americans and 4,000 Britons. America is hoping to fly out some 5,000 people per day and the UK 1,200 – though both managed just a few hundred yesterday, meaning the operation is likely to drag on for weeks, if not months.

How the US media reacted to Joe Biden’s ‘blame shifting’

Wall Street Journal editorial

‘Mr Biden refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal while blaming others. He blamed Donald Trump’s peace deal with the Taliban and falsely claimed again that he was trapped. He blamed his three predecessors for not getting out of Afghanistan. He blamed the Afghans for not fighting hard enough, their leaders for fleeing, and even Afghans who helped us for not leaving sooner. The one group he conspicuously did not blame was the Taliban, who once harbored Osama bin Laden and may protect his terrorist successor.’

Washington Post editorial

‘In short, the president could have listened to the many seasoned hands — inside and outside his own administration — who advised him that there were alternatives to precipitous, unconditional withdrawal. Mr. Biden instead set an arbitrary deadline – August 31 – for a full US pullout. Yes, the Afghan military’s demoralization and failure to fight came as a rude disappointment, as the president emphasized, but it’s fair to ask why, if he was sure the cause was lost, their quick surrender came as such a surprise to him.’

New York Post editorial

‘Biden claims whatever horrors are taking place there now could’ve happened any time we pulled out, whether years from now or years ago, and America simply couldn’t continue to spend blood and treasure on an endless war. The choice, he asserted, was between ramping up and fighting the Taliban all over again or withdrawing with all the chaos and misery that entails. Wrong.’ 

CNN opinion piece by Retired Lt Col Jason Amerinel

‘As I communicated with the terrified families of former allies trying to flee the country this week, I felt the sickening resignation one has when visiting a loved one in hospice. But Afghanistan’s collapse was not pre-ordained. It was willful abandonment.’ 

Fox News opinion piece by Rebecca Grant 

‘There’s been a horrifying narrative that the chaos in Kabul proves Biden was right to leave. Don’t buy it. The real chaos escalated just days ago. The time to secure the airport and plan evacuations was before the Taliban showed up on their motorbikes. Biden’s departure for Camp David, the August timing of the drawdown, the failure to support Afghan forces with airstrikes after last week or to secure the airport: it all reeks.’ 

New York Times editorial

‘The responsibility lies with both parties. President George W. Bush launched the war, only to shift focus to Iraq before any stability had been achieved. President Barack Obama was seeking to withdraw American troops but surged their levels instead. President Donald Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban in 2020 for a complete withdrawal by last May.’ 

USA Today opinion piece by James S. Robbins – 

‘The fundamental problem was mission creep. As President Biden rightly pointed out, the United States achieved its original strategic objectives quickly, disrupting al Qaida and punishing the Taliban for giving global terrorism a safe haven. But we then took on a nation-building mission which was not suited to the complex, decentralized, tribally based politics of Afghanistan.’

Los Angeles Times opinion piece by Charles A Kupchan

‘Biden is right to stand by his decision to end the military mission in Afghanistan, because doing so is consistent with the will of the electorate. Most Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, have lost patience with the ‘forever wars’ in the Middle East. The illiberal populism that led to Donald Trump’s election (and near reelection) emerged in part as a response to perceived American overreach in the broader Middle East.’

The Atlantic opinion piece by David A. Graham 

‘The American departure may be a moral catastrophe, then, but it is not a strategic failure. The occupation failed years ago. As I wrote in 2019, America’s leaders—Democrat and Republican; civilian and military; elected, appointed, and career civil servant—all knew for years that the U.S. was losing in Afghanistan, and they continued to say we were winning. While the endgame of the American exit was clearly botched, no critic of Biden’s or Trump’s withdrawal decisions has offered a coherent alternative plan beyond indefinite American occupation.’

As the US media reacted to Mr Biden’s statement on the crisis, a Wall Street Journal editorial today said that the President ‘refused to accept responsibility for the botched withdrawal while blaming others’. 

The piece added: ‘He blamed Donald Trump’s peace deal with the Taliban and falsely claimed again that he was trapped. He blamed his three predecessors for not getting out of Afghanistan. 

‘He blamed the Afghans for not fighting hard enough, their leaders for fleeing, and even Afghans who helped us for not leaving sooner. The one group he conspicuously did not blame was the Taliban, who once harbored Osama bin Laden and may protect his terrorist successor.’

The editorial also said: ‘Instead of taking responsibility, Mr Biden played to the sentiment of Americans who are tired of foreign military missions. It’s a powerful point to speak of sending a child to risk his life in a foreign country, and no doubt it will resonate with many Americans.’

Meanwhile in the Washington Post’s editorial today, the newspaper said Mr Biden ‘could have listened to the many seasoned hands – inside and outside his own administration – who advised him that there were alternatives to precipitous, unconditional withdrawal’.

It added that the ‘blame-shifting is especially unseemly given that some 66,000 Afghan fighters have given their lives in this war during the past 20 years, alongside 2,448 US service members’.

The newspaper continued: ‘Mr Biden said he stands by his decision, and takes responsibility. Well and good: He must now turn his attention to limiting the damage — starting with the obligation the United States owes to those Afghans who trusted America’s commitment to their country and staked their personal futures on it.’

The New York Post was scathing of the president, saying: ‘The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan over the past few weeks was an utter catastrophe, for Afghans and for world security — and he alone is responsible.’

It added in its editorial that Americans do back a withdrawal, after 20 years of maintaining soldiers in Afghanistan, but said there was ‘no urgent crisis demanding an immediate, haphazard pullout that leaves Afghans at the mercy of monsters — and America less safe’. 

It also pointed out that ‘the cost in US lives and money wasn’t terribly high in recent years’, saying ‘not a single American soldier has died in Afghanistan in the past 18 months’.  

Over on CNN, an opinion piece by Retired Lieutenant Colonel Jason Amerine, who served in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, said that he ‘felt the sickening resignation one has when visiting a loved one in hospice’, but added that Afghanistan’s collapse ‘was not pre-ordained – it was willful abandonment’.

He also wrote: ‘The arguments we’re hearing from officials about the inevitability of this collapse seem self-serving. The notion of inevitability removes blame or accountability.’

And on Fox News, an opinion piece by Rebecca Grant said: ‘There’s been a horrifying narrative that the chaos in Kabul proves Biden was right to leave. Don’t buy it.

‘The real chaos escalated just days ago. The time to secure the airport and plan evacuations was before the Taliban showed up on their motorbikes. Biden’s departure for Camp David, the August timing of the drawdown, the failure to support Afghan forces with airstrikes after last week or to secure the airport: it all reeks.’

However, the commentary in today’s American media was not one way – with other outlets either defending Mr Biden or pointing out that they felt others were responsible for the chaos in Afghanistan.

Among these were the New York Times which said in an editorial: ‘This calamity cannot be laid alone at President Biden’s feet, but it is incumbent on the current administration to make right what has gone wrong with the withdrawal plans. 

‘The US military is, if nothing else, a logistical superpower, and it should move heaven and earth and anything in between to rescue those people who have risked everything for a better future.’ 

The editorial also explained how the newspaper felt previous presidents were also responsible for the situation, saying: ‘President George W. Bush launched the war, only to shift focus to Iraq before any stability had been achieved. President Barack Obama was seeking to withdraw American troops but surged their levels instead. President Donald Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban in 2020 for a complete withdrawal by last May.’

It added that Mr Biden’s decision to remove all US troops was one which ‘took courage and wisdom’, adding: ‘The president knew full well what his critics would make of it – what they are already making of it.’  

Meanwhile in USA Today, an opinion from James S. Robbins defended him, saying: ‘President Biden bears some of the blame for the catastrophic collapse of the security situation in Afghanistan, but there is plenty to go around.’ 

It added: ‘Biden was dealt his losing hand by Bush, Obama and Trump. This defeat was not two weeks in the making but two decades. The fundamental problem was mission creep. As President Biden rightly pointed out, the United States achieved its original strategic objectives quickly, disrupting al Qaida and punishing the Taliban for giving global terrorism a safe haven.

‘But we then took on a nation-building mission which was not suited to the complex, decentralized, tribally based politics of Afghanistan. The United States could create stability, for a price, but could not transform a country shaped by centuries of ingrained traditions. Nor should we have tried.’

And a Los Angeles Times opinion piece by Charles A Kupchan said that Mr Biden ‘made the tough and correct choice to withdraw and end a losing effort in search of an unattainable goal’.

It added: ‘Biden is right to stand by his decision to end the military mission in Afghanistan, because doing so is consistent with the will of the electorate. Most Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike, have lost patience with the ‘forever wars’ in the Middle East. 

‘The illiberal populism that led to Donald Trump’s election (and near reelection) emerged in part as a response to perceived American overreach in the broader Middle East. Against a backdrop of decades of economic discontent among U.S. workers, recently exacerbated by the devastation of the pandemic, voters want their tax dollars to go to Kansas, not Kandahar.’

US soldiers stand guard along a perimeter at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan yesterday as the chaos in the country continues

President Joe Biden speaks about the Afghanistan crisis from the East Room of the White House in Washington DC yesterday

A C-17 jet carrying 640 Afghan refugees that left Kabul on Sunday night as the Taliban claimed the city in Afghanistan

And in The Atlantic, an opinion piece by David A. Graham said: ‘The American departure may be a moral catastrophe, then, but it is not a strategic failure. The occupation failed years ago. As I wrote in 2019, America’s leaders—Democrat and Republican; civilian and military; elected, appointed, and career civil servant—all knew for years that the U.S. was losing in Afghanistan, and they continued to say we were winning. 

‘While the endgame of the American exit was clearly botched, no critic of Biden’s or Trump’s withdrawal decisions has offered a coherent alternative plan beyond indefinite American occupation.’ 

It came as interpreters who had helped UK forces pleaded for British troops to help them escape Kabul. As Taliban fighters tightened their grip on the Afghan capital, many translators were forced to take refuge in basements to escape the bloodthirsty militants

Meanwhile, there were scenes of utter chaos at Kabul airport where panic at the Taliban’s takeover triggered thousands of desperate Afghans to rush on to the runway in a bid to board a plane to escape. 

Speaking for the first time after a wave of criticism from around the world, Mr Biden admitted the Taliban’s march to power had happened ‘more quickly than we anticipated’.

But he blamed Afghanistan’s political leaders who ‘gave up and fled the country’ and the Afghan army which ‘collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight’. Mr Biden said it was ‘gut churning’ to see the chaos in Afghanistan, especially for US soldiers who fought in the country.

But he said it was ‘wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own forces would not’, and said he had would deliver on ending America’s ‘longest war’.

‘I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years I’ve learned the hard way there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.’

And while he blamed both the Trump administration and Afghanistan’s leaders, he admitted ‘the buck stops with me’. He also threatened to respond with devastating force if the remaining US troops in the country were attacked in any way. 

Cabinet Ministers in Britain were said to have watched Mr Biden’s speech last night in ‘genuine disbelief’, according to Politico. It quoted multiple government officials saying the Ministers were stunned by ‘his refusal to acknowledge any mistakes’ and what they described as his ‘callous tone in attacking the Afghans’.

One Cabinet insider suggested to Politico that the events had shown ‘Biden is a lot more like Trump than he’d want to admit, and we’re a lot more like the Europeans than we’d like to admit.’

Writing for Politico, Matthew Karnitschnig wrote: ‘Until Sunday, Europe thought Joe Biden was an expert on foreign policy. Now, the American president’s decision to allow Afghanistan to collapse into the arms of the Taliban has European officials worried he has unwittingly accelerated what his predecessor Donald Trump started: the degradation of the Western alliance and everything it is supposed to stand for in the world. 

‘Across Europe, officials have reacted with a mix of disbelief and a sense of betrayal. Even those who cheered Biden’s election and believed he could ease the recent tensions in the transatlantic relationship said they regarded the withdrawal from Afghanistan as nothing short of a mistake of historic magnitude.’

On the same website, Politico’s John Harris and Ryan Heath wrote that ‘the fall of Afghanistan has painful implications for President Joe Biden’, adding: ‘It is hard to imagine events that could more vividly underscore the gap between American aims and ability to achieve its aims than the breathtakingly rapid fall of Kabul after two decades of U.S. military combat and diplomatic toil.’

Footage at Kabul Airport yesterday showed Afghans trying to jump aboard the fuselage of a US C-17 transport plane in a bid to cling to its side. 

Several stowaways were later seen falling from underneath the plane as it took off. At least seven people were said to have died at the airport amid a scramble by US soldiers to reclaim control.

Last night, it emerged that Britain is sending an additional 300 Special Forces troops and officials to Kabul in a frantic bid to help secure the airport and rescue the remaining British citizens and eligible Afghans. 

There are thought to be almost 1,000 UK passport holders still in Kabul, including the British ambassador, as well as hundreds more Afghan special forces and others who may be eligible for evacuation.  

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