PASSING THE BUCK ON AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: SHAMEFUL AND COWARDLY.

ICHEOKU says it is a shame that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken decided to blame President Donald John Trump's administration's agreement with the Taliban for botching the Afghanistan withdrawal mission. Funny enough the Secretary failed to correctly articulate the real bone of contention which was the manner in which the mission was carried out and not the mission itself. So, it does not matter who initiated the withdrawal process or who entered the agreement with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan, the withdrawal should have been carried out in a manner that meets the expectation of the world as well as the American people. 

But even if we accept, for the purposes of advancing this argument, that the hands of the Joe Biden government were constrained by the agreement, was their hands also constrained in the manner they implemented it? Did the agreement stipulate that they withdrew the military first before evacuating the civilians, both diplomatic and non diplomatic, including those Afghanis who assisted America during their 20 years sojourn there. So, what exactly was Secretary Blinken saying or trying so hard to convince American people that happened in Afghanistan, why the show they put up was below par and somewhat bothering on a humiliating mediocrity. Who does he think he was trying to make a fool of, a matter made worse because they acknowledged the withdrawal as a resoundingly spectacular success. 

Are there now two desks that there should be any confusion as on whose desk the buck stopped? Even the fact that Joe Biden had already taken full responsibility for what happened in Afghanistan was not persuasive enough for Secretary Blinken to finally come around in telling the truth about what really happened. It is purely crass incompetence; and the fact that neither him nor his counterpart in the defense department have resigned as a result, shows the one thing common with the Joe Biden administration officials and appointees. They cling to their offices as if their lives depended on them, instead of the required accountability, integrity and display of competence which public offices demand of their holders. Afghanistan was hugely botched, yet nobody has fallen on their sword. It is a terrible precedent to set that performance  no longer determines who holds public offices in America. 

They had eight months between January to August to get the withdrawal right; or in the alternative to reform, amend, vary or even outrightly cancel whatever Taliban agreement that was inherited from the Trump's administration. As is the practice everywhere, until full performance, any agreement can be changed  or completely voided; and the agreement between President Donald John Trump's administration and the Taliban was not any different nor an exception. So, why didn't Joe Biden's administration act in a manner that would have vitiated the agreement and renege on its implementation. A course which he had started on when he varied the date of full implementation from May 1st to August 31st or was  it September 1st? Why did he pass up the opportunity to dishonor the contract since it was Trump who entered into it as has been his pattern, practice and attitude to everything Trump. 

Nothing from the Trump's era has survived Joe Biden's vengeance so far; so why did the Taliban withdrawal agreement? Withdrawing from Afghanistan was a campaign promise he made and therefore he decided to fulfill it, and should own it up and stop blaming Trump for tying his hands up with the Taliban agreement. The Paris Climate accord was reversed by Trump but Biden restored it. The Iranian nuclear deal was abandoned by Trump but Biden reinstated it. Missile defense shields were placed in Saudi Arabia by Trump  but Biden have since removed them. Stay in Mexico immigration policy put in place by Trump has since been reversed by Biden. Construction of the southern border wall being implemented by Trump was equally stopped and abandoned by Biden. Ditto the Keystone XL pipeline which has been stopped by Biden.

The litany of such reversals of Trump's actions by Biden is quite long, so why did Joe Biden not also renege on the contract with the Taliban, and now making a straw man's argument through his Secretary of State that his hands were tied by it and adducing that as he reason the Afghanistan withdrawal suffered such a major humiliating snafu. The withdrawal was a good decision but those involved with seeing it through failed to meet up with what was required of the United States of America. They placed the cart before the horse by first withdrawing the military before the civilians and therefore compounded the whole exercise and made into the boondoggle it turned into. So, Mr Secretary of State should understand what the cry is about and not that American troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan or that an agreement with the Taliban precipitated it.

It was a mission acutely bungled by the people put in charge to carry it out, the Secretary of States and theSecretary of defense, and they did not put America's best foot forward in doing it. But so far, none of them has resigned or forced to fall on their sword for poorly carrying out the mission and in such a very humiliating way. Instead, Secretary Blinken is busy looking for the fall guy to pin the blame on and trying to shift the focus away from the Biden's administration and projecting it on the Trump administration. It is a contrived strategy which has failed as American people knew the facts of the withdrawal and who implemented it, rather abysmally and it wasn't the Trump administration. The Secretary also failed to understand that the crux of the matter was not the mission but how it was carried out and should be ashamed for trying to conflate and confuse the narrative. If only he has the candor to tender his resignation.