If Joe Biden were purposely trying to cause a disaster in Afghanistan, what exactly would he be doing differently?
That’s a question that pops into my mind after reading this latest report. With the State Department giving a disastrous presser earlier and Joe Biden still nowhere to be found (and reportedly, inexplicably returning to Delaware), things in Afghanistan are well past crisis level. Americans are trapped with no way to the airport and the White House response basically boils down to “good luck.”
Now, a bombshell revelation has come forth showing that Biden canceled the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau prior to the Taliban taking over Afghanistan. This was a Trump-era program that existed specifically to handle what we are seeing on the ground right now.
The Biden State Department moved in June to cancel a program overseeing the protection and evacuation of American citizens stationed overseas in the case of an emergency, just as the Taliban was taking over Afghanistan, according to an internal State Department memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The Biden State Department moved to dissolve the Trump-era crisis response program, according to an internal State Department memo and sources familiar with the matter. That memo, which was marked sensitive but unclassified and was signed by Deputy Secretary Brian McKeon, approved the “discontinuation of the establishment, and termination of, the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR),” a new State Department entity created during the Trump administration to coordinate emergency response services overseas.
Why in the world, with a major withdrawal from America’s longest war coming and thousands of Americans in harm’s way, would the Biden administration move to cancel this bureau? It simply makes no sense. Was this Antony Blinken’s decision as Secretary of State? If so, he needs to explain this right away.
To accentuate the problem, General Lloyd Austin asserted earlier today that he doesn’t have the capability to go into Kabul to rescue Americans who are stranded. Would he have had that capability with the logistics in place that this bureau purportedly provided? I can’t say for sure because I don’t know the extent of its role. What I do know is that when you disband a program designed specifically to deal with a problem you now face, there needs to be an explanation and accountability. Its ongoing existence certainly couldn’t have made matters worse than they are now.
Worse, it appears this was a political decision based on the timing. The CCR had its resources halted in January right after Biden took office. Again, why would the State Department purposely torpedo a program that could provide so much value unless it was simply another “Trump made this so it must be bad” move by the administration? There appears to have been no forethought put into the decision given the expediency with which it was executed.
Add this to the laundry list of things that need to be investigated going forward. And given how bungled this entire withdrawal was, a lot of resignations need to be tendered as well, the first of which should be Joseph R. Biden’s.