The Afghanistan catastrophe is an abject, shameful dishonor for America. The mighty American military simply surrendered to the Taliban. Our nation lost nearly 2,500 soldiers and spent $275 million per day every day for 7,267 days on that war—more than $2 trillion in 20 years. Yet our soldiers were evacuated in absurd haste to leave this nation to barbarians.

This has been the worst foreign-policy disaster in the nation’s history. This terrible defeat was a spectacle seen by the entire world—and they were watching intently! It will mar our history, perhaps for the rest of time.

Many people say it proves Joe Biden’s incompetence. But this catastrophe isn’t the result of bungling and bad judgment. It is a deliberate, planned effort to destroy America.

And it has been terribly successful.

With its rushed pullout, the Biden administration managed to squander 20 years of sacrifices in Afghanistan in mere days. It permitted the very extremist group we went in to destroy to regain control and create another radical Islamist state. Back in July, it abandoned a massive air base that would have made an evacuation far easier and safer. It left 5,000 terrorists in its prison that the Taliban were able to set free. It failed to evacuate at least hundreds of Americans safely and abandoned thousands of Afghan allies. It sent an unmistakable message to both allies and enemies worldwide: America does not keep its promises. We do not honor commitments. We cannot be trusted even to protect our own people!

Now, millions of people are going to be greatly persecuted and killed. Children and women are going to be abused, raped and murdered. The Taliban immediately began gathering up girls age 15 and even younger and giving them to their fighters as “wives.” They began publicly executing women for failing to wear a burka.

The Taliban, a primitive organization of around 75,000 fighters, threatened America—the most overwhelmingly powerful nation in history—that if it didn’t completely vacate by the end of August, it would face consequences. Many other nations with people in Afghanistan pleaded with Joe Biden to remain and get everyone out no matter how long it took. Biden refused. He obeyed his orders from the Taliban!

Joe Biden is commander in chief of the most militarily sophisticated nation in world history. He could use that power to drive the Taliban and every other terrorist group out of Kabul for as long as he wanted!

But he didn’t. Instead he begged the Taliban to let our people out. He didn’t want to upset these thugs. He would rather obey them, even if it meant enraging and alienating America’s allies and abandoning American citizens!

Former war correspondent Lara Logan said this administration wants you to believe “that Afghanistan is complicated,” but, in reality, “the United States wants this outcome.” She said America’s leaders “could do anything they want to change this. And they’re not.”

She is absolutely right. This is not mere incompetence. It is calculated destruction. It is treachery!

America’s Collapse

Just days before the evacuation was to be completed, a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport killed 182 people, including 13 American servicemen. The Taliban have armed checkpoints on every road leading to that airport. Clearly they allowed suicide bombers and armed gunmen in to commit that heinous act. But Biden’s people said they needed to work with the Taliban to prevent more attacks.

They even gave the Taliban a list of American citizens, green-card holders and Afghan allies, supposedly to facilitate their evacuation. The Taliban are known to torture, mutilate, behead and burn people who have helped America! To give them such a list is beyond stupidity—it is a grotesque betrayal!

Usually when America retreats from a war zone, if it has to leave any armaments behind it destroys them so they won’t fall into enemy hands. The Biden administration did the exact opposite! It gave a staggering $85 billion worth of U.S. military equipment to this extremist group—including that massive air base, 2,000 armored vehicles, 45 Black Hawk helicopters, 208 total aircraft, 10,000 air-to-ground rockets, over 2,500 bombs, and millions of U.S. dollars in cash. Victor Davis Hanson noted that the night-vision equipment, more than 20,000 grenades and 1,400 grenade launchers, more than 7,000 machine guns and 600,000 small arms, and millions of rounds of ammunition are “the perfect equipment for jihadist terror operations and asymmetrical street fighting” (August 30). Overnight, America created one of the most well-funded, heavily armed terrorist nations in the world!

Hanson compared this haul of armaments with the military aid America has given to Israel over the last 70 years, which has totaled around $100 billion. “In other words, in one fell swoop, the Pentagon deposited into Taliban hands about 80 percent of all the military aid that we’ve ever given to Israel since the founding of the Jewish state.”

What a wretched deed by the American “superpower”! This is as shameful as anything America has ever done.

America is not just declining, it is in the last throes of death. It is being destroyed before our eyes. Many are now in open despair. This Afghanistan disaster is the worst evidence ever of how the United States has collapsed as a superpower!

Other nations around the world see this clearly. They are taking advantage of this and preparing to replace American dominance with their own dominance.

The facts are irrefutable. Many people see the damage President Biden is doing. The most clear-eyed analysts recognize that there must be malicious intent behind it. These actions truly cannot be explained any other way.

What is particularly stunning is the way all of the civilian and military leaders in Joe Biden’s administration called the evacuation a tremendous success! They repeatedly said that everything went according to plan, and that it was a “heroic and historic” operation. Reporters pressed them on whether they felt they made any mistakes, and the answer—time and again—was no!

This proves just how arrogant and impervious to correction these leaders are. But even more—it shows you that they planned for this operation to be so disastrous! It all followed their plan—to America’s great hurt!

Many people recognize that there must have been malicious planning and intent behind what America did in Afghanistan. But almost nobody can tell you why the Biden administration is pursuing a policy so disastrous to America!

However, there is a reason. If you have followed the Trumpet for any length of time, you probably have a sense of what it is. There is a spiritual dimension to what is happening that you must understand.

The Obama Years

Many of the seeds for this disaster were laid years ago, when Joe Biden was vice president—second in command to Barack Obama.

I have written extensively on how, for eight years, the Obama administration was working dangerously against America’s interests—and why. With a background in radicalism, Marxism and communism, President Obama enacted a series of policies that wreaked havoc on the nation. He stirred up racial hatreds. He opened up America’s borders to dangerous illegal immigrants. He massively expanded the government’s control over the private economic sector. He sank the nation trillions deeper into debt. He attacked and cast aside the Constitution and other laws. He weaponized the nation’s intelligence services against American citizens. He overlooked provocations by powers like Russia and China. He trashed America’s relationships with allies like Britain and Israel.

President Obama also empowered Islamists in many ways. In Egypt he helped oust President Hosni Mubarak from power and supported the Muslim Brotherhood. He allowed America’s outpost in Libya to be overrun by jihadis, who killed a U.S. ambassador and several soldiers. He failed to enforce his own demands on Syria, undermining America’s strength and leaving a murderous dictator in place. Most importantly, he empowered the most extreme elements within the world’s number one terrorist nation, Iran. He turned his back on the people of Iran who rose up in protest against their tyrannical leaders. And as the regime withered under economic sanctions, Obama threw it a lifeline: He authored the disastrous nuclear deal that gave the mullahs millions in cash and a clear path to build nuclear weapons!

Throughout his presidency, Barack Obama pursued treacherous pro-Iran, pro-Muslim policies. The way that Joe Biden just gifted Afghanistan to the extreme Islamist Taliban—along with $85 billion in armaments—is entirely consistent with Obama’s policies, and it must be viewed in that context.

What Joe Biden did in Afghanistan is a continuation of the disastrous anti-American policies of Barack Obama.

Why would he do that? There is a sinister reason.

Kristoffer Tripplaar/Getty Images

Many people can clearly see that Joe Biden is not really in charge of the government. He has filled his administration with Obama-era officials, and Mr. Obama himself is really directing the show! Some say—correctly—that this is effectively Obama’s third term.

Eight years ago, during Obama’s presidency, I wrote my booklet America Under Attack. It explains the reason behind these ruinous policies. I wrote, “Many people can see that these are disastrous decisions. But we must understand that this isn’t simply the result of ineptitude on the part of this administration, or naivety about how the world really works. We are seeing the aftereffects of a calculated, aggressive, satanic attack aimed at weakening and ultimately destroying the nations of Israel, starting with the world’s most powerful nation!”

That booklet exposes the spiritual reality behind these terrible actions: Satan the devil is working to bring down America.

Many biblical scriptures explain and underscore this truth. You cannot grasp the malevolent intent behind Barack Obama’s actions without recognizing this. (If you have not read this booklet, please request a free copy.)

Purging the Military

President Obama also specifically prepared for this summer’s disaster in Afghanistan with some crucial decisions during his administration.

One diabolical act of his received little attention. As president, Obama completely reshaped the leadership of America’s military.

During his first five years in office, President Obama relieved close to 200 generals and many other high-ranking officers of their command. Presidents often change some top military staff, but several retired generals called what Obama did a “purge.” In 2013, retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady said, “There is no doubt he is intent on emasculating the military” (emphasis mine throughout). Retired Navy Capt. Joseph John told World Net Daily that “the U.S. Armed Forces have been under relentless attack by the occupant of the Oval Office for five years” (Nov. 4, 2013). Retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told Investor’s Business Daily that Obama was “intentionally weakening and gutting our military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged” (Oct. 29, 2013).

President Obama enfeebled America’s armed forces in many ways—but this was perhaps the deadliest!

No matter how powerful or numerous or sophisticated the military, if it lacks strong leadership it can accomplish nothing!

The leaders Obama put in office prioritized political correctness, racial and gender equality, and other outrageous causes that gutted America’s defenses. They supported Obama allowing transgenders into the military. They directed resources toward promoting radical-leftist ideas in foreign countries rather than protecting America’s interests and securing the globe.

Their goal was never to train soldiers to love their country and fight and even die to save their country! These leaders often trained soldiers to commit treason against their own country!

When Donald Trump became president, he worked to restore the might of America’s military. But even he was disappointed with the quality of many of the leaders under his command. And once Joe Biden took over, he went right back to the Obama-era madness: offering transgender soldiers “free” gender-reassignment surgery, working to purge “racism” and “right-wing extremism,” and so on. Reading lists for sailors and soldiers feature books that indoctrinate them in anti-American thinking. Earlier this year, when one lieutenant colonel wrote a book revealing how Marxism had infected the military elite, he was immediately fired! Prior generations of soldiers sacrificed their lives to stop the ideology that this generation of soldiers is being taught in our military academies!

These decisions by America’s leaders have deadly consequences! What happens when military commanders are more dedicated to promoting radical ideas than to defending the country? What happens when they don’t even believe in the ideals of the nation they represent?

Should we be surprised that military leaders no longer felt responsible for defending Afghanistan from terrorists and welcomed the Taliban taking it back?

This is a dramatic fulfillment of God’s prophecy in Isaiah 3:1-3, where He promises to curse America by removing “[t]he mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honourable man,” and other effective leaders.

Negotiating With Terrorists

When America announced it would be out of Afghanistan by August 31, the Taliban began taking over the country at lightning pace. Some sources say the offensive was masterminded by Khairullah Khairkhwa, a jihadist who has long aimed to eliminate America’s presence from Afghanistan. This past spring he promised the White House that if the U.S. removed all its troops, the Taliban wouldn’t attack. He became the chief Taliban negotiator speaking with the Biden administration.

The fact that Biden’s team would talk with this man is deeply condemning! It turns out, America knows him well. He had been captured and was confined at Guantanamo Bay Prison. “Mullah Khairkhwa previously served as the Taliban’s interior minister in Afghanistan, where he oversaw enforcement of brutal Islamist punishments, including beheadings and stonings,” the New York Post reported. “After 9/11, he was arrested in Pakistan and sent to Gitmo in 2002. The Pentagon accused him of closely associating with Osama bin Laden and bin Laden’s al Qaeda henchmen” (August 16). Khairkhwa and four other high-ranking Taliban terrorists were to be lifetime prisoners there. The Pentagon called them the “hardest of the hardcore” among Guantanamo prisoners.

But these five men were released—by Barack Obama. He let them go in 2014 in exchange for U.S. Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl.

This was another move by Obama that proved to be deadly! As soon as Khairkhwa was released, he reportedly went back to his terrorist activities. Now he has helped deal a crushing blow to America!

Still, Mr. Obama—through the Biden administration—is treating this man as a trustworthy negotiation partner. This is treasonous!

It also directly links the current disaster in Afghanistan with former President Barack Obama.

Certainly the Biden administration’s eagerness to treat the Taliban—these brutal terrorists who have killed so many Americans in the past 20 years, not to mention Afghan citizens—as a legitimate partner is very consistent with the way Obama has been working for years.

Most people, however, are only looking at the surface. All the blame and anger over the Afghanistan fiasco is being directed almost solely at Joe Biden! People are failing to see the bigger picture.

I believe Barack Obama intended Biden to take the flak for what has happened here. Joe Biden has talked about getting out of Afghanistan for years. He really believed it was best for America. And now this man is rashly carrying out this policy in the worst way possible both to humiliate America and empower our enemies, heedless of all the horrifying evidence of what tragedy it is creating.

I do not know exactly how this was orchestrated, but it has all fulfilled Mr. Obama’s desires perfectly. America has retreated, it has proved itself to be a spent power, Islamists control Afghanistan and are ascendant in the Middle East, and Joe Biden is taking the fall for all of it.

From the beginning, Kamala Harris was Obama’s preferred candidate for president. She has been invisible throughout the Afghanistan ordeal and is taking none of the blame. Neither is Obama. This is all by design! Something is causing many of Joe Biden’s most loyal supporters to turn on him dramatically and fiercely!

Will we see a change in America’s leadership soon as a result of this debacle?

Blotting Out Israel

The biblical book of Kings is part of the former prophets. And most of its prophecy is for this end time.

I have often pointed to the prophecy in 2 Kings 14:26-27. It is speaking of the modern-day descendants of ancient Israel—America most of all. It says, “For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.”

Somebody is trying to blot out the very name of Israel! And the only thing that is going to prevent that is God’s intervention.

That is the real aim of what Barack Obama has been doing and continues to do through the Biden administration. This gets to the truth in a way that no one else can recognize. Everything is happening in a way that causes maximum destruction to this country!

The real mastermind is not even Barack Obama—it is Satan the devil! He is the one who “made the earth to tremble”! (Isaiah 14:16). A human being could not plan out these events to create such scale of devastation. But the devil is extraordinarily shrewd and skilled at sabotage and destruction. And he intensely hates America, to which God gave the birthright blessings promised to the descendants of ancient Israel. (Request The United States and Britain in Prophecy for a thorough explanation.) So he is passionately attacking America.

Ephesians 2:2 calls Satan “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Yes, this evil spirit works in people! He is able to influence people’s thinking and emotions. The more that human beings allow themselves to be influenced by him, the more they can do terrible things! And you see a lot of that in our nations today.

Revelation 12:7-9 is an end-time prophecy that describes a war in heaven between righteous angels and the devil and his demons. It says that “the dragon [Satan] fought and his angels [demons], And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Can you see that the whole world has fallen prey to the devil’s deceptions? He is far more active in world events than people realize!

Verse 12 warns: “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” As his time grows shorter, Satan is more wrathful than ever!

Why is God allowing this satanic attack on America? Look closely at 2 Kings 14:27, and you see that God will prevent the devil from blotting out the name of Israel. But how severe will He allow the attack to get?

Jeroboam

As The United States and Britain in Prophecy proves, many Bible prophecies explain why God is allowing all this to take place. God is correcting America for its sins! (You can read more about this in “Why America Really Failed.”)

Do you recognize the Afghanistan disaster as the earthshaking event that it is? This should shake us all to our core and cause us to acknowledge that God is cursing America!

Ultimately, this is not caused by a bad president. It is not caused by the wickedness of the radical left. God is cursing us for the sins of the whole nation. We all need to turn to God in repentance! We as a people are disobeying God and are facing the terrifying consequences! And because we refuse to acknowledge this, these wretched events are going to get far worse before this is over.

God has given America incomparable blessings, and He wants to continue to bless us. But He cannot do so while we live in rebellion against Him. He is correcting us—as a father who loves his children! (e.g. Hebrews 12:5-7).

And 2 Kings 14:27 indicates that, even if we fail to repent collectively, in His mercy, God is going to ensure that the name of Israel is not blotted out! He is going to save America “by the hand of Jeroboam”—temporarily.

As I have written for years, the end-time type of Jeroboam in this prophecy is Donald Trump. When he came to power, we saw a sudden and dramatic reversal in the direction of the nation! Mr. Obama’s plans were abruptly halted. So he and his people determined to do whatever was necessary to prevent Mr. Trump from getting a second term—including stealing the 2020 election! That too reveals just how much they are being influenced by the devil in his worst wrath.

But that is not the end of the prophecy. Verse 28 shows that this Jeroboam is going to war to “recover” something. I am convinced that is talking about the stolen election. Somehow, Donald Trump will return to power. He could even have the support of the military in doing so. I explain this in my article “What Will Happen After Trump Regains Power.” This prophecy suggests that the diabolical influence of Barack Obama will be stopped.

The Bible provides the keys to understanding these otherwise incomprehensible events. The startling truths that God has revealed about Barack Obama over the past several years have been made all the more vivid and plain by the Afghanistan disaster!

As Amos 3:7 says, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” God explains all these truths so we can recognize what is happening, heed His warnings, and turn from our sins! He also gives the outline of where these events will lead so we can see God’s hand in what is happening as events unfold according to His prophecies!

Every American needs to recognize this and act on it! But regardless of what happens nationally, God gives you the power and the choice individually to do so.

With editorial assistance from Joel Hilliker