Biden gave an appalling speech to mark the occasion of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan.  He proudly stated that the withdrawal was an "extraordinary success," despite 13 American deaths, Taliban control over $83 billion's worth of top-flight weapons, and untold numbers of abandoned Americans.  What he also did, which was foul, was blame the victims.  What makes that blame game worse is that he knew over a month ago that the Taliban's conquest was imminent.  However, because he is clearly delusional at every level, he kept that information from Americans.

One of the reasons Biden rushed the withdrawal was because he wanted to give a speech on August 31 — and give a speech he did.  It was a bizarre speech, complete with lies, unseemly aggression, and internal contradictions.  The worst thing, though, was his insistence that those Americans left behind were responsible for the situation in which they find themselves:

Since March, we reached out 19 times to Americans in Afghanistan, with multiple warnings and offers to help them leave Afghanistan — all the way back as far as March.  After we started the evacuation 17 days ago, we did initial outreach and analysis and identified around 5,000 Americans who had decided earlier to stay in Afghanistan but now wanted to leave.

Maybe they did get such notices, but what mattered to them was that, on July 8, Biden had stated in no uncertain terms that there was no way the Taliban would get anywhere near Kabul before everyone was safe:

Q    Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?

THE PRESIDENT:  No, it is not.

Q    Why?

THE PRESIDENT:  Because you — the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped — as well-equipped as any army in the world — and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban.  It is not inevitable.

[snip]

Q    Mr. President, some Vietnamese veterans see echoes of their experience in this withdrawal in Afghanistan.  Do you see any parallels between this withdrawal and what happened in Vietnam, with some people feeling —

THE PRESIDENT:  None whatsoever.  Zero.  What you had is — you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy — six, if I'm not mistaken. 

The Taliban is not the south — the North Vietnamese army. They're not — they're not remotely comparable in terms of capability.  There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan.  It is not at all comparable. 

Knowing that his words on July 8 would haunt him, in last night's speech, Biden insisted that actual events were a big surprise:

The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan National Security Forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban.

That assumption — that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown — turned out not to be accurate.

However, by July 23, when there was time to warn Americans to get out immediately, Biden knew the truth.  He deliberately hid it because he had the delusional fantasy that pretending everything was going well would magically make things go well.  We know this because someone leaked to Reuters the transcript of the last phone call between Biden and Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani on January 23.

In the call, Biden tried to reassure a panicked Ghani that the Afghan military was up to the task and that the U.S. would try to help.  There was a reason Ghani was panicked — and our "ally" Pakistan figures largely in that panic:

"We are facing a full-scale invasion, composed of Taliban, full Pakistani planning and logistical support, and at least 10-15,000 international terrorists, predominantly Pakistanis thrown into this," Ghani said. Afghan government officials, and U.S. experts, have consistently pointed to Pakistani support for the Taliban as key to the group's resurgence.

(Pakistan denies this claim.)  Biden, however, while admitting his ignorance of things military, told Ghani that he just needed to pretend his way to victory:

In much of the call, Biden focused on what he called the Afghan government's "perception" problem. "I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban," Biden said. "And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture."

[snip]

"I'm not a military guy, so I'm not telling you what a plan should precisely look like, you're going to get not only more help, but you're going to get a perception that is going to change ...," Biden said.

The next day, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, General Mark Milley, and U.S. Central Command commander General Frank McKenzie also got on the phone with Ghani and told him to buck up and create a victory narrative.  That all these people would engage in magical thinking when the inevitable was playing out in front of them is staggering.

Still, what they did is typical for leftists, who are "word people."  To them, saying something makes it real — and they've certainly had a lot of success in America with Critical Race Theory.  Changing attitudes through indoctrination, however, doesn't work in a war, when the only reality that matters is who's shooting and who's running.  By the end of July, it was clear who was doing what, yet Biden never escalated the threat level for those Americans in Afghanistan.

Biden is unfit to lead America.  Kamala Harris is also a nightmare, but our country cannot function with a delusional man at the helm.

As a bonus, Tucker spells out the other problems with Biden's statement last night:

Image: Biden remarks on leaving Afghanistan.  YouTube screen grab.

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