Joe Biden ‘leading the world’—off a cliff

President Biden just delivered a speech on Afghanistan so rife with misdirection and mendacity that it’s hard to know where to start. But from the welter of Orwellian Newspeak, let’s pluck a line in which we find Biden praising himself for his handling of Afghanistan. Biden told us : “This is about America leading the world, and all our allies have agreed with that.”

If so, this is about America, under his stewardship, leading the world off a cliff. …

There’s plenty more, including Biden’s bizarre claim that al-Qaeda is gone from Afghanistan: “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al Qaeda gone?” According to a report just this June by a United Nations panel of experts on these matters: “Large numbers of Al-Qaida fighters and other foreign extremist elements aligned with the Taliban are located in various parts of Afghanistan.” (These are topics on which even the UN tends to produce more reliable information than the Biden White House, which is doubly intriguing because, though we can’t tell for sure, it is quite likely U.S. intelligence has helped inform the UN report.)

Then there’s Biden’s astounding assertion that “I have seen no question of our credibility from our allies around the world.” Perhaps someone should brief him on the fury in Britain’s parliament, summed up in a Reuters headline: “UK lawmakers condemn PM Johnson and U.S. President Biden over Afghanistan.” Or the anger of NATO members that Biden did not consult them about his plans for withdrawing from Afghanistan. For that matter, Biden and his crew would be wise to take a moment to stop the gaslighting and actually listen to the American public. For all the federally-backed crusades for American self-flagellation, an enormous number of Americans prefer being proud of their country, and proud of its role as leader of the Free World. They really don’t like the Biden version of withdrawal from Afghanistan — neither the oily fictions from the White House nor the grotesque defeat now playing out in Kabul.