Afghanistan has fallen, despite the assurance of President Joe Biden that the Taliban lacked the resources to topple the Afghan Government.
Remember this from July 8, a mere five weeks ago:
Despite the assurance of President Biden this comparison can now be made:
Make no mistake, this is a catastrophe of monumental proportions. Meanwhile Joe Biden is manufacturing photo ops while on holiday at Camp David:
The White House’s photo and caption, however, inadvertently only put a spotlight on the fact that the withdrawal from Afghanistan has been catastrophically mishandled. As the Taliban held a press conference from the presidential palace in Kabul just five weeks after Old Joe denied that “a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan” was “now inevitable” and insisted that it was “not true” that the Afghan government would “likely collapse,” the White House spoke blandly about Biden and Harris hearing “updates on the draw down of our civilian personnel in Afghanistan.”
It’s not a “draw down,” it’s a rout, and everyone knows it – everyone, that is, with the possible exception of Old Joe, sitting alone at his huge conference table, pretending to be briefed about this disaster and simultaneously pretending that it isn’t a disaster.
This disaster is fully on him, no matter how hard he tries to spin it. He should be drummed out of office for dereliction of duty. Donald Trump has called for him to go:
“It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan,” Trump said Sunday evening. “Along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy.”
PJ Media
Meanwhile, in New Zealand, our own Prime Ditherer has spent the day wringing her hands and producing a concerned, frowny face, and bizarrely states that she is deploying troops into Afghanistan to help.
New Zealand is sending in the Defence Force to help dozens of Kiwis and Afghan allies stranded in Afghanistan escape following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of capital city Kabul.
At her post-Cabinet press conference from the Beehive on Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government was aware of 53 Kiwis who are still there and seeking to get out, with plans now underway to repatriate them.
Chief of Defence Air Marshall Kevin Short said under the current plan, a C-130 Hercules aircraft and roughly 40 Defence Force personnel dispatched in Afghanistan for about a month.
Newshub
Really? A month? I call bullshit on that. Kabul is lost, the airport will be lost before the C-130 even gets off the ground in New Zealand, and 40 troops aren’t going to be able to do anything if their plane can’t even land.
The Prime Minister and Kris Faafoi have literally sat on their hands for weeks ignoring pleas to remove our personnel and the small cadre of Afghan civilian workers who assisted our deployment over 20 years.
Sadly, those people that she is pretending they are going to save, especially the Afghan workers, are in grave peril.
This government has sent a message, that you can’t trust a Kiwi. Those people have been left literally swinging in the breeze by a callous government that is beset by inertia.
All we have now is the unedifying sight of our Prime Minister grovelling and begging the Taliban to allow people to leave.
New Zealand has joined an international statement on the situation in Afghanistan, calling on the Taliban to allow Afghans and other citizens to depart if they wish.
“Given the deteriorating security situation, we support, are working to secure, and call on all parties to respect and facilitate, the safe and orderly departure of foreign nationals and Afghans who wish to leave the country,” the joint statement reads.
“Those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan bear responsibility – and accountability – for the protection of human life and property, and for the immediate restoration of security and civil order.
“Afghans and international citizens who wish to depart must be allowed to do so; roads, airports and border crossing must remain open, and calm must be maintained.
“The Afghan people deserve to live in safety, security and dignity. We in the international community stand ready to assist them.”
Newshub
So she thinks the Taliban will let people leave, even those who have supported our defence forces? The chances of that being listened to by the Taliban death cult is remote.
Oh, Sweetie, you’re a woman, the Taliban won’t be paying you any heed.
At least Helen Clark recognises the danger the Taliban poses:
She sent New Zealand troops to Afghanistan in 2001 during her term as prime minister and said it is surreal to see what has happened.
“Twenty years of change there with so many gains for women and girls in society at large and to see what amounts to people motivated by medieval theocracy walk back in and take power and start issuing the same kinds of statements about constraints on women and saying that stonings and amputations are for the courts – I mean this is just such a massive step backwards it’s hard to digest.”
Clark said to find out what has gone wrong it is necessary to look back a couple of decades and it was not long after the Taliban had left that the US administration started to look away from Afghanistan, turning instead towards its intervention in Iraq.
“With the gaze off Afghanistan the Taliban started to come back. When I was at UNDP I would meet ambassadors from the region around Afghanistan and they would say ‘look 60 percent of the country is in effect controlled by the Taliban now’ and I’m going back four or five years, six years in saying that.”
Newshub
You won’t be seeing Jacinda Ardern try and sheet the blame for this disaster home to John Key as it was her political mother who got us involved in Afghanistan. Now it has turned to ashes.
Judith Collins correctly identifies the Government’s failure:
Ardern told The AM Show on Monday Cabinet will decide what support could be offered to the likes of interpreters. The Government is also working with at least 47 New Zealand residents on evacuation plans and isn’t ruling out sending in Defence Force troops.
But Collins fears it’s too late.
“We have a huge responsibility and I just hope the Government is going to announce today that they’ve got out the last of those that were involved in helping us; so that’s the interpreters but also the carpenters and people like that, who were working in the camps,” she told Magic Talk.
“I’ve been to Afghanistan, I’ve seen the work that was going on there, and I’m just devastated for the people of Afghanistan, particularly the women. New Zealand does have an obligation. “The obligation is to those who helped us, worked with us, helped to keep New Zealanders safe.”
Newshub
Sadly, I think the prevarication of Kris Faafoi and Jacinda Ardern means they will have blood on their hands.
I think Ardern needs to do the one thing that she is world-famous for, put on a hijab and go and hug everyone in Kabul, and tell them all to be kind.
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