Scrutiny continues to build over Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, as it becomes increasingly clear he went ahead despite the warnings of intelligence and military advisors. While he has maintained in public addresses to the nation that he owned the current chaos unfolding, the president has used much of his rhetoric to also shift blame onto his predecessor.
Former Senator Al D’Amato told The Cats Roundtable on Sunday that Biden’s decision ignored the knowledge of those on the ground in favor of his own advisors.
“I think it’s a president who has been subverted by his own advisors, and those advisors who have warned him about what might take place, he didn’t listen to,” D’Amato said, adding the attempt to shift blame onto Trump was “a poor excuse for a horrific president action.”
D’Amato confessed his frustration at what the scenes of the American withdrawal were painting to U.S. allies. And he’s not without reason.
NATO allies have expressed their frustration at the unilateral decision to withdraw U.S. troops, and as the chaos mounts in Kabul, many have expressed outrage at the handling of the evacuation. We had effectively “pulled the rug out from under them,” the former New York Senator said.
“Look at what our allies are now saying,” he told The Cats Roundtable. “The vulnerability we have—the worst is yet to come because our allies are not going to be able to put the reliance in us, in our word.”
And the word of the US, that was the real currency of American prestige around the world. Our word, to D’Amato and others, is as strong as your bond.
“This is a disaster that threatens world conflict,” D’Amato stressed. “Because our enemies now are going to be able to intimidate the leaders of these other countries who were looking to the United States for protection.”
He expressed his deep shock and remorse at the loss of 13 U.S. military personnel on Thursday, and remained anxious for “those still in peril.” But he emphasized the peril that faces US boots on the ground and Afghan alike was a situation that could have been avoided if a proper plan had been carried out.
“It did not have to happen, and I have to tell you, the blame stands with one person,” D’Amato told The Cats Roundtable. As the US withdrawal winds down for the August 31st deadline, many on both sides of the aisle believe Biden had undermined much more than his own credibility with the current debacle. From the Afghans and US citizens who fear being left behind, to the gold-star families receiving their flags of honor, the decisions of a President ripple through the world. But those moved by Biden’s decision, and living in its shadow, are all asking one thing: why did it have to be this way?
