GOP Pretty Sure 20-Year Afghanistan Clusterf*ck Is Joe Biden's Fault, For Ending It
Here's a thing about it that used to be on the RNC's website but suddenly isn't anymore, huh, wonder what that's all about!
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney appeared on ABC's "This Week" to give her take on this. Now, we don't need to tell you the mitigated gall it takes to be the literal scion of the Dick who actually initiated this Afghanistan conflict and think you have the moral credibility to now question how it ends.
For a second, it actually seemed the younger Cheney was gonna give a sobering summation, but then it didn't seem that way anymore:
CHENEY: Well, I think if you look at where we were, if you look at what it would have taken in terms of maintaining the status quo, 2,500 to 3,500 forces on the ground, conducting counterterrorism, counterintelligence operations, this disaster, the catastrophe that we're watching unfold right now across Afghanistan did not have to happen. And it's not just that people predicted that this would happen, everyone was warned that this would happen.
Cheney was focused on when those predictions were made. The Taliban was not murky about its intentions, but many people opposed going into Iraq and Afghanistan in the first place during the Bush/Cheney administration, because they had studied Russian history in that region or at least had seen Charlie Wilson's War. And here we are.
Initially our goals were clear: Capture/kill Osama Bin Laden and stop Al-Qaeda by deposing the Taliban that harbored it in Afghanistan. That's it. But those objectives became blurred as years went by, and also Obama finished one of them when he murdered Bin Laden. But we guess Liz Cheney, like a true Cheney, would rather just indefinitely occupy Afghanistan.
Cheney, though, had no compunctions calling out others who had a hand on this outcome.
JONATHAN KARL: I mean, it was President Trump that negotiated the agreement with the Taliban to have a complete withdrawal that was supposed to actually happen by May 1st. So who bears responsibility?
CHENEY: Look, I think absolutely President Biden bears responsibility for making this decision. But there is no question that President Trump, his administration, Secretary Pompeo, they also bear very significant responsibility for this. They walked down this path of legitimizing the Taliban, of perpetuating this fantasy, telling the American people that the Taliban were a partner for peace. President Trump told us that the Taliban was going to fight terror. Secretary Pompeo told us that the Taliban was going to renounce al Qaeda. None of that has happened. None of it has happened. […] I mean, they -- this disaster certainly began -- and, look, the notion of we're going to end endless war, that campaign slogan, what we're watching right now in Afghanistan is what happens when America withdraws from the world.
Maybe that's why you don't start forever wars. But who cares, if opportunists can shamelessly say we "cut and run" after 20 years instead?
Speaking of heat-seeking missile of scumbaggery Mike Pompeo, He appeared on "Fox News Sunday," where Chris Wallace asked him about his role in the current situation, after playing tape of Trump saying we needed to leave Afghanistan:
WALLACE: Critics say that for the U.S. to cut a deal with the Taliban without the Afghan government even in the room was hugely demoralizing and led inevitably to where we are today.
Pompeo seemed to try to argue that the Trump agreement to withdraw was fine, but it's Biden's fault for going with it instead of ignoring it like they did Obama's many international agreements. So that was interesting!
Wallace pressed him more on this and played video of Pompeo legitimizing and praising the Taliban for their "peaceful" agreement.
WALLACE: You were the first American secretary of State to ever meet with the Taliban and you talked about how they had agreed to join us in the fight against terrorism. […] Do you regret giving the Taliban that legitimacy? Do you regret pressing the Afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners, which they did, some of whom are now back on the battlefield fighting with the Taliban?
POMPEO: Chris, you make peace with your enemies, the statement that I made that day was absolutely true.
Hey, remember that time the Trump administration invited the Taliban to Camp David for 9/11? Just curious.
The person who was the Afghan president has fled the nation, and we're trying to stabilize a withdrawal before the folks Trump and Pompeo made "peace" with kill everyone. Who's gonna be the president now? That guy with Pompeo, looks like.
But sure, it's all Biden's fault. Also it is critical race theory's fault, somehow, according to Pompeo:
POMPEO: I think weak American leadership always harms American security. So this is in the context of the Biden administration that has basically abandoned the global stage in favor of climate change. They've been focused on critical race theory while the embassy is at risk.
The military that served and sacrificed in these wars -- myself included -- did their duty as they always do. All they ever ask is not to send them to endless or pointless wars.
A promise broken too easily and too often by the chicken
shithawks.
So shut the fuck up and take your end of responsibility in this, GOP.
Have a week.
Wonkette is fully funded by folks like you! If you love Wonkette, GIVE US MONEY DONATIONS.
