RASC News Agency: In a recent article titled “Biden’s Disgraceful Silence on Afghanistan,” “The Washington Post” criticizes President Joe Biden for failing to mention Afghanistan even once during his five-thousand-word speech at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. The article describes Biden’s silence as disgraceful, suggesting that his political decline began with the catastrophic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
Charles Lane, the author, argues that had Biden remained faithful to his principles and commitments, he would have proudly referenced the 2020 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan during his speech at the Democratic National Convention, where he was nominated to run against Donald Trump. Lane asserts that Biden’s omission of Afghanistan from his address indicates that the topic is uncomfortable for both the President and his party, preferring it remain unspoken.
The article underscores that few presidents have made such grave errors in their foreign policy decisions as Biden has. Lane highlights the severe repercussions of the Taliban’s return to power for the Afghanistani people, including the brutal suppression of dissent and the harsh discrimination against women and ethnic minorities. He also notes that Afghanistan was a prominent issue at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee in July, where Trump labeled the withdrawal as “the greatest humiliation for America.”
Lane accuses Republicans of hypocrisy, emphasizing that it was Trump who negotiated the U.S. exit from Afghanistan with the Taliban, with no guarantee that the withdrawal would have been less disastrous under his administration. It’s worth noting that despite his criticism of Trump’s policies, Biden adhered to the timeline for troop withdrawal negotiated between Trump and the Taliban, leading to the complete U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Biden defended this decision, asserting that the U.S. had achieved its counterterrorism objectives and no longer needed to maintain a presence in Afghanistan.
