Biden must take responsibility for catastrophe in Afghanistan

U.S. President Joe Biden walks from the podium after speaking about Afghanistan from the East Room of the White House, Aug. 16, in Washington. AP-Yonhap

By Scott Shepherd

"You don't think this actually could have been handled better in any way? No mistakes?" asks the interviewer.

"No. I don't think it could have been handled in a way that ― there ― we're going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing ― I don't know how that happens. I don't know how that happened," replies U.S. President Joe Biden.

An incoherent reply, a stubborn refusal to accept the obvious truth. Remind you of anyone?

After four years of Trump, the world thought it would see a more engaged America, ready to co-operate internationally once again: a strong and open country with a serious leader once again. "America is back," Biden claimed.

And now we gaze listlessly into our screens at the heart-wrenching images coming out of Afghanistan, the latest of America's disgraceful withdrawals from the world.

There's so much to be angry about: the absolute waste, the pointlessness of it all, the thousands of lives ruined or ended for no obvious purpose, the ineptitude, the narrow-minded selfishness of America's disastrous withdrawal. It raises questions, too, about what this means for world security; and indeed it raises alarming implications about Korea's own defense.

How could the American military establishment have been so naive to think that the Afghan army could continue fighting on its own after the psychological blow of being so suddenly deserted by the strongest military power in the world? How was this collapse anything but predictable?

As a policy, I usually try not to believe all of the cynical claims about politicians always lying, obfuscating, shifting the blame and refusing to own up to their mistakes. Biden has made that much harder for me this week.

Biden must take responsibility. He withdrew the troops in the middle of the fighting season ― you know, that time of year when the Taliban gears up for war and attempts to take over the country ― rather than during a winter lull. He timed the withdrawal to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of Sept. 11: a political choice aimed (mistakenly) at the American electorate rather than a military or diplomatic decision made for the good of the Afghan people ― or even for the good of Americans in the region, if we're going to be so America-centric about the world.

As the chaos unfolded and everyone tried to act surprised, Biden gave a speech claiming that "the buck stops" with him. This political cliche usually is a way of taking responsibility without having to say something so crass as "it's my fault".

But in the very same speech, he blamed everyone else: it's the Afghan army's fault for not fighting; it's the Afghan leaders' fault for being corrupt and running away; it's the Afghan translators' fault for not wanting to leave earlier; it's Trump's fault for signing up to a bad deal.

The former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, by the way, can hardly be blamed for fleeing Kabul. In the late 1990s, the last president who lost a war to the Taliban, Mohammad Najibullah, was tortured and executed, his bloodied corpse hung from a pole.

That's not to say that Ghani is somehow free from any blame; there is plenty to share around. But it is just so galling to see Biden and his team acting as if this is somehow mission accomplished, as if this is anything other than a disaster. Biden persists in placing the blame on others, but by refusing to accept responsibility, he only exacerbates his already grave error in judgment.

What a failure in leadership.

I've always felt that Korea has a strong and reliable ally in the U.S. I still do believe that in the very unlikely situation that the North Korea invaded, we could rely on America to rain hell on our neighbors to the North ― and that's without even taking into account the strength of the South's own formidable military. But the events of the past week have made me a little less sure that in the event of a long and protracted war against North Korea and ― heaven forbid ― China, then South Korea could rely on American support in the way that it did 70 years ago.

Would some future American president abandon Korea in the same way that recent presidents have ditched the Kurds and the Afghans? I'd like to think not, but the precedent has been set.

In the short term, it's a relief to see that the fighting in Afghanistan has mostly stopped. But the Taliban takeover has got to be bad for the world. With this kind of uncertainty, political leaders around the world will beef up their own militaries, and regimes will look to nuclear weapons for security. The ramifications of Biden's actions will be felt for years and decades to come. This is not a success ― it is nowhere near it. Biden should stop blaming others and pretending like it's all fine; he must start taking responsibility for this failure.

Dr. Scott Shepherd is a British-American academic. He has taught in universities in the U.K. and Korea, and is currently assistant professor of English at Chongshin University in Seoul. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.