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Jake Neubauer's avatar

I agree that Bacon got it wrong to suggest the Media should have covered the Afghan debacle LESS. However, I think there is a distinction to be made here that I saw few in the media making: Biden DELAYED the pullout of Afghanistan after Trump surrendered to the Taliban. The US agreed to be out of the country by April... and it went into the summer. Many of our allies left behind could have been saved with better preparation, or if the Trump administration had done more to expedite US Visas for those allies knowing a pullout deadline was coming in 2021

Did the Biden administration do anything useful with that extra time - it appears not, or certainly not enough. People in US uniforms, and unknown numbers of translators and other Afghan allies in the US, were failed by our Country. But the idea that Biden has full responsibility for a executing a surrender negotiated by Trump leaves out a critical part of the story.

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Eva Seifert's avatar

Trump via Miller deliberately sabotaged the visa process for the Afghans. After all, who wants all those Muslims invading the US?

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Terry Hilldale's avatar

Yes, Biden did delay. It is probably not accurate to conclude the Biden administration did little to nothing with the extra time based solely on what happened https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/ What apparently was NOT planned for was the speed of the collapse after intelligence and military sources revised down their estimates of time to collapse to thirty days. It took five days. It is only "on Biden" in the same way Trump opponents say everything is on Trump whether it is his fault or not.

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Jake Neubauer's avatar

Fair clarification - looks like most of the Bulwark readers understand the nuances of what actually happened. It is just too bad the electorate doesn't appreciate that nuance. Polling suggests they did blame Biden, just like they blamed him for the war in Ukraine or gas prices or inflation

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