Even those of us who have long urged getting out of the hopeless Afghan morass are apoplectic at the self-defeating way this was done.
Biden’s slapdash withdrawal came on the heels of months of failed intelligence assessments and years of naïve assurances from US military brass that the Afghan army was prepared to stand up on its own. They were all wrong. The result: images that sear the American conscience. Kabul is now the millennial Saigon.
The Beijing regime has already moved to develop relations with the new Taliban regime in Kabul and held assault exercises near Taiwan island on Tuesday.
Xi’s endgame here is simple: He envisions Afghanistan fitting into his regime’s sweeping Belt and Road Initiative, a multi-continent infrastructure plan that offers smaller nations from Central Asia to the Horn of Africa to Eastern Europe development in exchange for Chinese domination. It is highly unlikely that Biden, who personally helped China’s accession to the World Trade Organization and whose addled son Hunter has long been financially entangled in mainland Chinese business, will act now to buttress support for Taiwan.
The proper response to China, in the aftermath of the Afghan debacle, would be a demonstrable display of support for our core regional allies and an unapologetic statement of our Asia-Pacific strategic priorities, coupled with the hard asset deployments to match, such as warship or aircraft carrier repositioning.
Secure the national interest, bolster longtime allies, and stop exporting effete Western liberalism: How hard is that for our failed ruling class to grasp?
TAC answer: Apparently very hard. Impossible.