Biden, Harris AWOL amid Kabul chaos under Taliban

Here is a very simple question regarding the national humiliation of a Taliban blitzkrieg that took back Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of U.S. involvement there: Why didn’t we hear from the president of the United States as this incredible foreign policy crisis exploded over the weekend? Why did it take until late this afternoon to explain to Americans and the world what was happening and the import of what they have been seeing for the past two days or more?

Here was President Biden’s original schedule for Monday as Afghans loyal to the U.S. are being killed, forced into hiding, left in the lurch as U.S. officials flee, or panicked into trying to board U.S. aircraft at Kabul’s airport: “In the morning, the president will receive the President’s daily brief at Camp David. This meeting will be closed [to the] press.”

And that’s it. 

Biden’s public schedule for tomorrow ––> pic.twitter.com/sBimKVp9RY

— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) August 16, 2021

Late Monday morning, the White House announced that Biden would finally return to Washington and deliver remarks on the situation in Afghanistan. These will be Biden’s first public remarks about Afghanistan in nearly a week. 

Why did it take so long?

Another question: Where is Vice President Harris, who bragged about playing a key role in Biden’s decision in April to withdraw from Afghanistan? 

April 2021: “Harris confirmed that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.”

Harris said, “I have seen him over & over again make decisions based exactly on what he believes is right.”https://t.co/Y79CIdOYSa

— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) August 15, 2021

Perhaps when Harris eventually takes a question from the press again – it’s been a while since we’ve seen that happen – then someone could ask about her thinking around this decision. (In a related story, she has yet to hold even one formal press conference since taking office more than 200 days ago.) 

Here’s the president’s own words in July on what would and would not happen in Afghanistan, how it would in no way resemble the chaotic U.S. evacuation from Saigon in April 1975: “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

Saigon 1975
Kabul today pic.twitter.com/JP7SNgq6Ra

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 15, 2021

And here’s his evaluation of the Afghan army’s ability to fight the Taliban: “I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped.”

The #Taliban not only seized appr. a hundred US humvees and (MaxxPro) MRAPs at Kunduz airport, but also several US ScanEagle drones.
Billions of US tax payer $ going to Islamist extremists, thanks to the administration’s hasty withdrawal without a peace deal or follow up mission. pic.twitter.com/Fb5MTpdLKK

— Julian Röpcke (@JulianRoepcke) August 12, 2021

… and his prediction of how the Afghan army would perform: “They’ll continue to fight valiantly, on behalf of Afghans, at great cost.”

The collapse of the Afghan military that has allowed the Taliban to enter Kabul without a shot fired began nearly one and a half years ago… https://t.co/3nQHNe0ql5

— susannah george (@sgreports) August 15, 2021

It’s also worth noting there will be no White House press briefing today, which have been held daily Monday-Friday to this point almost without exception. 

An Axios piece summed up Biden’s performance here: “Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as Biden on Afghanistan.”   

Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as Biden on Afghanistan. Usually military operations and diplomacy are long; the outcomes, foggy.

Not here.https://t.co/MQhcu8dAzH

— Axios (@axios) August 15, 2021

For those who say this is just like Saigon, it ultimately could be much worse, because Vietnam hasn’t harbored terror organizations such as al Qaeda or ISIS. The Taliban obviously did so in the past and well may again, knowing that the current administration doesn’t have the vision, the planning or the backbone to stop it from doing basically whatever it wants. 

The administration is being hammered by military analysts on TV, too, for the poor planning and timing of the U.S. exit. The question is the same: Why did Biden announce the departure of U.S. military personnel at the onset of the fighting season instead of completing the process in the dead of winter, a time when the Taliban retreats to its bases in Pakistan?

The Pentagon has at least taken questions from the press, although the answers inspire no confidence. On Friday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, who was a CNN analyst during the Trump era, called on Afghans to unite. Of course, this was laughable against the backdrop of the Taliban conquering major cities on their way to eventually seizing control of Kabul. The Taliban, given its history, has no interest in unity, particularly when having the upper hand militarily. 

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says U.S. is “certainly concerned about the speed with which the Taliban is moving,” as several provincial capitals have been captured

“This is a moment for the Afghans to unite — the leadership and the military,” he says https://t.co/Tnk4vdBNuX pic.twitter.com/dcZaDzz0VS

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 13, 2021

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke of the situation on Sunday — but, again, his answers were less than confidence-inspiring and were contradicted by the facts on the ground in Kabul. He told ABC News that “This is manifestly not Saigon” and reiterated on CNN: “Remember, this is not Saigon.”

Now, for the Afghan people, particularly women, the future looks hellish. As the Wall Street Journal reports, retribution against any civilian suspected of having assisted the U.S., executions of captured Afghan soldiers and forced marriages for young girls have already begun, with more and worse likely to come. 

“It would have been better for her if they had killed my daughter than leave her in this state”: As the Taliban sweeps through Afghanistan, locals report unprovoked attacks on civilians, executions of captured soldiers and forced marriages https://t.co/82BsTEocoX

— WSJ Politics (@WSJPolitics) August 13, 2021

Things are considered so dire there that some people reportedly tried to flee by clinging to the outside of a C-17 plane as it took off. 

People are literally sitting on the outside of c-17 plane as it taxiing to take off from #Kabul – later reports two or three people who clung to the wheels fell off mid flight, plunging to their deaths pic.twitter.com/Hn0pr03PUg

— Bel Trew (@Beltrew) August 16, 2021

For our allies, the future of American involvement and support looks questionable. But if U.S. officials were offering little to nothing in the way of reassurances or answers, China’s state media had some — a mocking observation that Kabul’s transfer of power was “more smooth” than America’s last January.

As for the American people, next month’s marking of 20 years since 9/11 will be more ominous than ever, knowing that Afghanistan may once again become a fertile training ground for terrorists looking to upstage 9/11 in the next big attack. And at the moment, they are being subjected to endless media reports of panicked evacuations from Kabul’s airport, which one human rights worker described as “Saigon on steroids,” and alarming but unanswered questions about America’s military, intelligence and diplomatic competencies. 

So why did the president’s advisers hide Biden and his vice president for so long when the world needed to hear from them immediately? We’ve heard more so far from the Taliban than the U.S. commander in chief.  

Taliban is doing a live press conference from the Presidential palace in #Kabul pic.twitter.com/3nIszFPjXg

— Asaad Hanna (@AsaadHannaa) August 15, 2021

When the going gets tough in Biden’s Washington, apparently, the tough go on vacation and don’t answer questions. 

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist for The Hill.