The Patriot Post® · Dealing With the Taliban Will Be Ugly

As the Taliban solidifies its hold over Afghanistan and reinstalls its well-known brand of tyranny among the country’s citizens, we are getting a crash course in what constitutes the upside-down foreign policy of President Joe Biden.

The administration is trying to get Americans to forget about Biden’s historic failure by pivoting to domestic affairs. He’ll even give a speech today about COVID. (As if there is any good news to be had there.) But it will be hard to let slip the president’s epic disaster, a tale of woe that only gets bleaker as we watch the administration digging an ever deeper hole for itself in its dealings with the Taliban.

Details of the botched U.S. military exit from the country and the Taliban’s rapid return to power continue to dazzle us with just how quickly Biden frittered away the 20 years of hard work by American Patriots in uniform and our allies. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley is still trying to convince the public that the Taliban’s rout was a well-planned, rehearsed operation. He should resign instead.

It gets worse. Secretary of State Antony Blinken encapsulated the cluelessness of the Biden administration recently when he stated: “The military mission is over. A new diplomatic mission has begun.”

And how is that diplomatic mission going so far?

The Taliban have locked Afghanistan up tight as they hunt down and punish all those who have helped American forces these past 20 years. Flights with American citizens out of Mazar-i-Sharif were grounded for days. The Taliban gave no reason as to why, but they didn’t have to. They are unquestionably in charge of the country. America’s hasty military exit has stripped us of the ability to protect our citizens or our Afghani allies, and with feckless Joe Biden at the helm, the Taliban has nothing to fear. And the Biden administration has refused to disclose just how many Americans were left behind in Afghanistan.

Fortunately, the news today is that 200 Americans, U.S. permanent residents, and holders of other Western passports are finally being allowed to leave.

Blinken has already proved to be a useful idiot in their game, telling reporters, “The Taliban has committed to let anyone with proper documents leave the country in a safe and orderly manner.” After seeing what the Taliban’s commitment really looks like, Blinken’s response was to remind them that the international community is watching and will insist that the Taliban let people travel freely. The Taliban cares not one wit about the international community, or did we all forget the last time they ran Afghanistan in the 1990s?

Since returning to power, Taliban spokesmen have told Western reporters that they will respect Afghans’ civil rights. Meanwhile, they are imprisoning and executing anyone tied to the American occupation and engaged in the systematic removal of women from public life, forcing them to wear burqas and take male escorts outside their homes. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen recently said that the rest of the world should just mind its own business when it comes to Taliban culture. The Biden State Department’s tack? Expressing concern that the Taliban’s all-male government isn’t as “inclusive” as Team Biden had hoped. Yes, that’s laughing you can hear all the way from Kabul.

Heck, even The Washington Post editorial board rolled its eyes over that one.

Speaking of Taliban culture, here’s a primer. A pregnant woman was beaten and shot just a few days ago, and while the Taliban denies committing this atrocity, the BBC cites three sources that confirm their involvement. The Taliban has promised to investigate the crime. Don’t count on it.

Indeed, the Taliban’s idea of “inclusive government” is employing four of the five Taliban fighters who Barack Obama released from Gitmo in exchange for traitor Bowe Bergdahl. That’s right — they now hold leading roles in the reconstituted Afghan government.

The Afghan people cannot count on Biden to help them. He has knuckled under to the Taliban at every turn, even assisted them. U.S. forces left behind valuable American military hardware in retreat that the Taliban can now use at their own discretion. And let’s not discount the probability of a resurgent terrorist network in Afghanistan.

All of this in time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11.