OPINION:
The fall of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban shows America as a land of betrayers, positions China for its next step toward world dominance and guarantees that violence, bloodshed and oppression will be the ruling order of the day in this nation of tribes.
The Taliban have no reason to plot a future of peace and basic human rights. Why should they?
The Joe Biden administration has rolled over and shown a big ol’ belly of weakness. Each day brings a new show of incompetence — a new display of frantic scurrying to correct glaring missteps. What do members of the Taliban have to fear?
“Taliban going ‘house to house’ in Afghanistan ‘hanging’ people who worked with US: source,” Fox News wrote.
Meanwhile, this: “US holding direct and daily talks with Taliban in effort to ease Biden’s Afghanistan crisis,” CNN wrote.
America’s in the publicly perceived position of asking Taliban terrorists for permissions — all the while Taliban terrorists are exacting their revenge on those who dared to help America these past two decades.
Biden’s still leading from behind.
Biden’s bargaining from a begging position of “please, oh pretty please, may I please?”
It’s Barack Obama’s Syria debacle meets the Vietnam era’s fall of Saigon.
Obama ceded the world stage and American strength during his administration when he kept drawing red lines over Syria, threatening some sort of ill-defined military action if Bashar Assad unleashed chemical weapons on his own citizens. Assad did; Obama didn’t; and ultimately, Russia swooped into the scene and seized high leadership ground, pretending to forge a deal that included Syria’s voluntary destruction of its chemical weapons’ stash — the ones Obama couldn’t even get Assad to admit existed. Russia looked strong; America appeared second-tier. Oh, and as it turns out, Syria never did follow through on the pretend agreement. In 2017, dozens of Syrian adults and children were killed by sarin gas — an attack the Donald Trump administration put firmly at the feet of the Assad regime. Chemical weapons, what chemical weapons?
This theme of pretend peace is going to be replicated in today’s Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
On one hand: “Taliban vow to respect women, despite history of oppression,” The Associated Press wrote.
On the other hand: “Taliban reportedly shoots and kill Afghan woman for not wearing burqa,” Yahoo wrote.
On one day: “Evacuations from Afghanistan gather momentum as Taliban promise peace,” Reuters wrote.
On the very next day: “Armed members of the Taliban kept people desperate to flee Afghanistan from reaching Kabul’s airport,” Reuters then wrote.
In one report: “Taliban seek no ‘revenge’ and all Afghans will be ‘forgiven,’” The Guardian wrote.
In another report: “Taliban’s pledge of peaceful leadership is quickly coming undone amid reports of beatings, deaths,” CNBC wrote.
The spastic headlines show only what common sense dictated would be the result of a chaotic departure of U.S. military, absent any sort of pre-planned protections for the innocent: the speedy return of evil. Democrats always dismiss such notions; Democrats always believe in the power of diplomacy — or, more to truth, Democrats are always deceived by the arrogant reliance on their own minds. They think they can talk the Taliban down from their Taliban ways. They think they can reason with terrorist types by offering economic opportunities, or by building bridges and roads, or by simply acquiescing to demands. They don’t think — that’s the real problem.
But evil does.
Evil plots and plans and strategizes and bides time. And that’s exactly what the Taliban have been doing all these years of U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. They’ve waited for their time to come. It has. Now they’ve seized the moment; seized the day — seized the country-side and citizens and American citizens and all the higher ground that comes from winning the spoils of war. What’s America under Biden going to do now? Send in the strongly worded letters of warning? Hold meetings with the Security Council to pen more strongly worded letters of warning? Do an Obama and draw some sort of red line in the air? It’s too late for even that.
“China can contribute to Afghan development — Taliban spokesman,” Reuters wrote.
“China has played a constructive role in promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and is welcome to contribute to the rebuilding of the country, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Chinese state media,” Reuters wrote.
And this, from The New York Times: “With Collapse in Afghanistan, Russia Takes Charge in Central Asia.”
And this, from Foreign Policy: “Iran Welcomes Taliban Rule in Afghanistan.”
So much for any financial issues the Taliban might have encountered in the coming days. Not that the opium trade wasn’t already lucrative, that is.
Biden and his band of merry Cabinet incompetents haven’t just botched a job in Afghanistan that can be fixed in a few moments. There are geopolitical consequences that will ripple and resonate for years. There will be international upheaval due to America’s decidedly weaker image, and America’s shameful show of leaving behind its friends. There will be times of testing for America, for America’s allies, for America’s defenders, for American citizens, to come — quite possibly, of the September 11 type. These will be times that can be traced directly back to this Biden administration’s foreign policy failures. When America’s shown as weak, when America’s shown as incompetent, all hell breaks loose.
When good men and women do nothing, evil prevails.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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