The desire to paint the Biden administration in a negative light during this election often recalls the tragedy of the Afghan citizens and 13 U.S. military personnel who were killed in the U.S. departure from Afghanistan. That loss of life was indeed a horrible tragedy. It was also a suicide bombing. The inference that a suicide bombing would not have occurred if Trump had been president is absolutely ludicrous. That suicide bombing had nothing to do with who was the sitting U.S. president.
It is rarely acknowledged that it was Donald Trump who negotiated with the Taliban the U.S. departure from Afghanistan. That agreement stipulated that the Taliban would not attack U.S. personnel if they left the country by a certain date. The Biden administration either had to honor Trump’s agreement with the Taliban, or they would have had to re-escalate the 20-year-old conflict with the Taliban after the fall of the Afghan government. Airlifting over 120,000 people from the country in 17 days was a monumental feat by the U.S. military. Discrediting that amazing effort by suggesting that they should also have removed all of the military equipment is also ludicrous.
Similarly, believing that the war in Ukraine would not have happened if Trump had been president is another fantasy. Neither Trump nor any of his several secretaries of state could have pulled the NATO coalition together to help Ukraine as Biden and Antony Blinken have done, despite Republican opposition in Congress.
Rich Farrington
Hesperus
