Rubin: Biden tells some hard truths few want to hear
President Biden on Thursday mournfully delivered information to the country that was disagreeable to many Americans: There is no way to withdraw from a futile war without messiness. The expectation that there would be no misery or casualties was a fantasy.
A case in point is the issue of Afghan refugees. “I know of no conflict, as a student of history — no conflict where, when a war was ending, one side was able to guarantee that everyone that wanted to be extracted from that country would get out,” Biden said solemnly. His historical memory is accurate.
The United States has transported roughly 120,000 Afghans and American citizens to safety at great human cost. That miraculous feat is a tribute to the humanity and bravery of the U.S. military and civilian personnel and volunteers. But any hope of depopulating a war-torn country, and ending the suffering there (including the dismal future for millions of women and girls) after our defeat is not grounded in reality. It belongs with the magical thinking that the United States could create a nation state in Afghanistan.
A week ago, many in the media were lecturing the administration for abandoning Afghans. Now, after we evacuated about 120,000 people at the cost of 13 American lives, reporters wanted to know why we were keeping troops at the airport. In response to such a question on Thursday, Biden said: “There are additional American citizens, there are additional green-card holders, there are additional personnel of our allies, there are additional SIV cardholders, there are additional Afghans that have helped us, and there are additional groups of individuals that — who have contacted us from women’s groups, to NGOs, and others, who have expressly indicated they want to get out.”) He was criticized for “abandoning” Afghans; when we stay to rescue them he gets faulted for risking American lives.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/29/biden-tells-some-hard-truths-few-want-hear/
Typically excellent piece by Jennifer Rubin.
= new reply since forum marked as read
"This next game is called “Pin the blame on the donkey."
She nailed every point that I keep screaming at my TV for talking heads to acknowledge, and she did so clearly, concisely, and conclusively.
I heard GOP Congressman Kinzinger the other day, being confronted by Anderson Cooper. Anderson noted that American troops expanding the perimeter around the Kabul Airport so that we didn't "need the Taliban to do our job for us", would just mean even greater numbers of U.S. troops exposed to attack outside of the gates as the circle of security they would try to hold would become even larger. And then they still would have to personally pat down all those trying to enter. Kinzinger conceded the point, then backtracked to a new talking point: The U.S. should have secured the entire city of Kabul and not have allowed the Taliban to enter Kabul until all of our evacuations were concluded.
Yes, he really said that 
