The basing of our criticism on whether a President or any other elected officials stumbles hurts his side, and benefits their side politically and electorally, is the most harmful when it comes to matters that require the collective support of our nation. National security and foreign policy being among them. I mean, when a foreign policy/national security decision to deploy the military is met with nearly half of the electorate automatically opposing you because of party ID, then it creates so many disincentives for our elected officials to pursue policies that are in the best interests of our country. I don't know if we can win World War 2 and the Cold War with our current political environment.
Biden obviously deserves harsh criticism for what he did. But our criticisms of him and any other president shouldn't be based on whether it benefits our side and hurts their side, but rather how it affects the country. Trump sycophants or anyone else who cheered on Trump's inexcusable decision to negotiate with the Taliban, drawing down troops significantly, and throwing the Afghan government under the bus and giving Afghan citizens the shaft, should sit this one out. And those on the left who rightfully excoriated Trump for such an asinine move, shouldn't make excuses for Biden. This major blunder has damaged the credibility of the US, not to mention possibly emboldening countries like China and Russia in seeing the most powerful country of the free world showing weakness and lack of resolve. They will let other countries know that the US cannot be relied to keep its promises.
I understand and do respect the arguments of those who believe that leaving Afghanistan was the correct decision and I understand the weariness of the people of wars. While I respectfully disagree with those who favored leaving, at least most of us can all agree that the manner in which we drew down and withdrew was horribly botched. And that the Trump and Biden administrations contributed to this debacle.
Since we betrayed the Afghans, the very least we can do at this point, is to allow them to come to our country and live here. They deserve to have live free and pursue the American Dream.
We are a pretty far cry from World War 2, where the belief that politics stopped at the water's edge(not that you couldn't criticize Presidents carrying out a war, but that you rooted for their success and didn't rejoice in their stumbles for the sake of the country.) was firmly followed. We've done pretty well throughout the 20th century with that political commandment during the Cold War. Though throughout the 1990s to the early 2000s, some of this commitment started showing signs of cracking, and rising political tribalism eventually led to the current political environment of today.
There are good reasons both for staying and for leaving. I personally lean towards Tom Nichols's perspective: the ongoing commitment pre-Trump drawdown was minimal and kept America safe, but that it is best to leave considering the environment for real debate on the merits of staying does not exist. That makes the policy of leaving correct: the execution of that policy (from Trump and Biden) is the problem.
My apologies for taking this out on you David, but you may be the only sane one worth even having this conversation. I try to limit my comments to a one off and then let it go. I don't want a debate or a boring back and forth. I enjoy reading different points of view and believe there is value in them.
I have made it abundantly clear how i feel about Biden's actions and worse yet, his commentary. It is foolishness personified to sit with George Stephanopoulos and claim they did everything right. It is utter bullshit and he should be held accountable. More on that in a second.
I awake every morning to an email box that includes Erick Ericson, The Bulwark and The Racket. It's by choice, though i have asked EE to stop sending me his crap. To date this week, no less than 9 emails regarding Afghanistan from him. All of which are pretty much the same tripe, written in a slightly different twist.
Then to add insult to injury, i see Steve now wants Biden to resign (tongue in cheek?). I've got a different take, a way better idea. I think Joe should immediately send 25,000 troops back there, set up a strike force with smart bombs and simply tell the Taliban we are taking every one of those brave folks who worked with us back to America. And if one our soldiers is killed or any of the Afghan's who helped us are hurt, we simply blow them off the face of the earth.
It flexes our muscles, proves to people we are the super power in the world and we live up to the commitments we made along the way. It's a win/win because everyone gets what they want and no one has to die. The Taliban get their country back with no one to challenge them.
Oh yeah one more thing. Every single one of the Afghan's we pull out should be settled in Georgia, as close to EE's house as we can get them. Who knows, in time they may become strong right wing advocates and support trump et al. Best of all, perhaps it would shut up EE's and Steve's moral outrage.
Again, my apologies to you and your readers. There is reason to be critical of what Biden did in Afghanistan, but enough is enough. Of course i guess for them it is better than focusing on the daily death count from covid19 going over a thousand people a day...and the dummies who are causing it.
It's good to see someone else has grown tired of EE and his spiraling descent into stupidity. Steve is just EE without the perks of betraying everything you claim to be.
And I do believe this is partly to keep from people focusing on how COVID is once again surging as it moves from the idiot south through the rest of the country.
It's usually the left who thinks twitter is real life. It's funny to watch conservative talking heads think this will cause Biden to resign or that his numbers will tank. It's just not real.
I am starting to wonder that maybe this was to make America more accepting of refugees. You know the hard right doesn't want anyone but it seems like showing people rush to their deaths to get out of there may have made the public more accepting of allowing them here. Something that wouldn't have happened at all under a racist like Trump now seems like it will be a question of how many thousands we resettle here.
Biden has not cleared any bar for competence, sanity, intelligence or honesty. He's who he has always been - a dishonest politician. He and his handlers have screwed up every single policy action they have undertaken. It's only a matter of time before he leaves office. They are trying to hide his mental deficiencies long enough to push through their progressive agenda before it becomes so obvious that an unpopular Kamala Harris has to assume the office. That would mean they no longer have majority vote in the Senate.
Curtis, I think a more plausible explanation is that Biden is not the most articulate and sharpest guy in the room. That has been well known for decades. I just am not convinced he is mentally deficient or insane, other than the usual slowing down that occurs for someone of his age. Because Trump shifted the Overton window dramatically when it came to presidential behavior, Biden and almost anyone else would look much better in comparison. That is why many who like the current president, tend to almost reflexively compare him to Trump. Had the latter not existed, Biden would've been compared to Presidents whose character and behavior was more along the norms for the average pre-Trump president. And he wouldn't fare anywhere near as well comparatively speaking. Since I stuck to a pre-Trump assessment of Biden, I came away not impressed, and voted write-in. I don't look poorly on those that did vote for Biden, and those that voted for Trump(as long as they aren't sycophants). Other than that, I agree with most of your assessments of Biden.
One thing I must point out, is that if Joe Biden resigns, and Kamala Harris becomes POTUS, she would be required to appoint a Vice President(Section 2 of the 25th amendment), who would then be confirmed if the nominee wins a simple majority vote in both House and Senate in the affirmative. The last time this happened was when Nixon resigned, and Gerald Ford became President. He then appointed Nelson Rockefeller as his VP. Harris would nominate a Democrat, as there is no way she would nominate a Republican and have Democrats lose control of the Senate. I hope he doesn't resign though. I have a very low view of Kamala Harris, for many reasons. And I'll take a Biden, flawed as he is, any day over Harris. I saw one poll that had Harris's favorable/unfavorables at 46 to 48 percent. While not good, it isn't catastrophic. Her numbers trail that of Biden. But in a polarized tribal era, it would take a lot to get a President under 40 percent. Obama's approval numbers ranged from 38-69 percent in Gallup, but averaged about 48 percent throughout his presidency. As for Trump, his approval numbers generally stayed relatively static in the low 40s. His approval numbers when he left office was similar to Bush 43, at 34 percent.
What you say makes a lot of sense. But, as you would guess, I have a couple of counterpoints.
I'm several years older than Biden but I'm certain the withdrawal from Afghanistan would not have been bungled so badly under my administration. Same for the fiasco at the southern border. Also, with veto power, any conscientious President could have made sure money was spent more wisely than what is in the legislation passed by a democrat congress with the help of a few Republican idiots. Biden has always been a fool who once had an engaging personality when he wanted to.
Harris would lose control of the Senate if all Republican Senators stayed on point and stayed healthy. Without Republican help there would be no simple majority - only a 50/ 50 split.
Yeah, that would be interesting given control of the Senate relies on the VP tie breaking vote. In a hypothetical of Biden resigning, and Kamala becoming POTUS, there would be a vacancy as VP. No one to break that 50-50 tie. So assuming all GOPers in the Senate reject Kamala's VP choice as per the 25th amendment, deadlocking the Senate, there is no VP to break the tie. That's a good point Curtis. Ultimately, I think Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and other more left leaning Republicans would vote for Kamala's VP choice. I don't think the politics of blocking a President's VP choice is good. In any case, I think the GOP has a good chance of taking over Congress in 2022, with the Senate a harder reach, but entirely within reach.
The basing of our criticism on whether a President or any other elected officials stumbles hurts his side, and benefits their side politically and electorally, is the most harmful when it comes to matters that require the collective support of our nation. National security and foreign policy being among them. I mean, when a foreign policy/national security decision to deploy the military is met with nearly half of the electorate automatically opposing you because of party ID, then it creates so many disincentives for our elected officials to pursue policies that are in the best interests of our country. I don't know if we can win World War 2 and the Cold War with our current political environment.
Biden obviously deserves harsh criticism for what he did. But our criticisms of him and any other president shouldn't be based on whether it benefits our side and hurts their side, but rather how it affects the country. Trump sycophants or anyone else who cheered on Trump's inexcusable decision to negotiate with the Taliban, drawing down troops significantly, and throwing the Afghan government under the bus and giving Afghan citizens the shaft, should sit this one out. And those on the left who rightfully excoriated Trump for such an asinine move, shouldn't make excuses for Biden. This major blunder has damaged the credibility of the US, not to mention possibly emboldening countries like China and Russia in seeing the most powerful country of the free world showing weakness and lack of resolve. They will let other countries know that the US cannot be relied to keep its promises.
I understand and do respect the arguments of those who believe that leaving Afghanistan was the correct decision and I understand the weariness of the people of wars. While I respectfully disagree with those who favored leaving, at least most of us can all agree that the manner in which we drew down and withdrew was horribly botched. And that the Trump and Biden administrations contributed to this debacle.
Since we betrayed the Afghans, the very least we can do at this point, is to allow them to come to our country and live here. They deserve to have live free and pursue the American Dream.
We are a pretty far cry from World War 2, where the belief that politics stopped at the water's edge(not that you couldn't criticize Presidents carrying out a war, but that you rooted for their success and didn't rejoice in their stumbles for the sake of the country.) was firmly followed. We've done pretty well throughout the 20th century with that political commandment during the Cold War. Though throughout the 1990s to the early 2000s, some of this commitment started showing signs of cracking, and rising political tribalism eventually led to the current political environment of today.
There are good reasons both for staying and for leaving. I personally lean towards Tom Nichols's perspective: the ongoing commitment pre-Trump drawdown was minimal and kept America safe, but that it is best to leave considering the environment for real debate on the merits of staying does not exist. That makes the policy of leaving correct: the execution of that policy (from Trump and Biden) is the problem.
My apologies for taking this out on you David, but you may be the only sane one worth even having this conversation. I try to limit my comments to a one off and then let it go. I don't want a debate or a boring back and forth. I enjoy reading different points of view and believe there is value in them.
I have made it abundantly clear how i feel about Biden's actions and worse yet, his commentary. It is foolishness personified to sit with George Stephanopoulos and claim they did everything right. It is utter bullshit and he should be held accountable. More on that in a second.
I awake every morning to an email box that includes Erick Ericson, The Bulwark and The Racket. It's by choice, though i have asked EE to stop sending me his crap. To date this week, no less than 9 emails regarding Afghanistan from him. All of which are pretty much the same tripe, written in a slightly different twist.
Then to add insult to injury, i see Steve now wants Biden to resign (tongue in cheek?). I've got a different take, a way better idea. I think Joe should immediately send 25,000 troops back there, set up a strike force with smart bombs and simply tell the Taliban we are taking every one of those brave folks who worked with us back to America. And if one our soldiers is killed or any of the Afghan's who helped us are hurt, we simply blow them off the face of the earth.
It flexes our muscles, proves to people we are the super power in the world and we live up to the commitments we made along the way. It's a win/win because everyone gets what they want and no one has to die. The Taliban get their country back with no one to challenge them.
Oh yeah one more thing. Every single one of the Afghan's we pull out should be settled in Georgia, as close to EE's house as we can get them. Who knows, in time they may become strong right wing advocates and support trump et al. Best of all, perhaps it would shut up EE's and Steve's moral outrage.
Again, my apologies to you and your readers. There is reason to be critical of what Biden did in Afghanistan, but enough is enough. Of course i guess for them it is better than focusing on the daily death count from covid19 going over a thousand people a day...and the dummies who are causing it.
It's good to see someone else has grown tired of EE and his spiraling descent into stupidity. Steve is just EE without the perks of betraying everything you claim to be.
And I do believe this is partly to keep from people focusing on how COVID is once again surging as it moves from the idiot south through the rest of the country.
It's usually the left who thinks twitter is real life. It's funny to watch conservative talking heads think this will cause Biden to resign or that his numbers will tank. It's just not real.
I am starting to wonder that maybe this was to make America more accepting of refugees. You know the hard right doesn't want anyone but it seems like showing people rush to their deaths to get out of there may have made the public more accepting of allowing them here. Something that wouldn't have happened at all under a racist like Trump now seems like it will be a question of how many thousands we resettle here.
Roseberry has since gotten out of his truck and surrendered.
Biden has not cleared any bar for competence, sanity, intelligence or honesty. He's who he has always been - a dishonest politician. He and his handlers have screwed up every single policy action they have undertaken. It's only a matter of time before he leaves office. They are trying to hide his mental deficiencies long enough to push through their progressive agenda before it becomes so obvious that an unpopular Kamala Harris has to assume the office. That would mean they no longer have majority vote in the Senate.
Curtis, I think a more plausible explanation is that Biden is not the most articulate and sharpest guy in the room. That has been well known for decades. I just am not convinced he is mentally deficient or insane, other than the usual slowing down that occurs for someone of his age. Because Trump shifted the Overton window dramatically when it came to presidential behavior, Biden and almost anyone else would look much better in comparison. That is why many who like the current president, tend to almost reflexively compare him to Trump. Had the latter not existed, Biden would've been compared to Presidents whose character and behavior was more along the norms for the average pre-Trump president. And he wouldn't fare anywhere near as well comparatively speaking. Since I stuck to a pre-Trump assessment of Biden, I came away not impressed, and voted write-in. I don't look poorly on those that did vote for Biden, and those that voted for Trump(as long as they aren't sycophants). Other than that, I agree with most of your assessments of Biden.
One thing I must point out, is that if Joe Biden resigns, and Kamala Harris becomes POTUS, she would be required to appoint a Vice President(Section 2 of the 25th amendment), who would then be confirmed if the nominee wins a simple majority vote in both House and Senate in the affirmative. The last time this happened was when Nixon resigned, and Gerald Ford became President. He then appointed Nelson Rockefeller as his VP. Harris would nominate a Democrat, as there is no way she would nominate a Republican and have Democrats lose control of the Senate. I hope he doesn't resign though. I have a very low view of Kamala Harris, for many reasons. And I'll take a Biden, flawed as he is, any day over Harris. I saw one poll that had Harris's favorable/unfavorables at 46 to 48 percent. While not good, it isn't catastrophic. Her numbers trail that of Biden. But in a polarized tribal era, it would take a lot to get a President under 40 percent. Obama's approval numbers ranged from 38-69 percent in Gallup, but averaged about 48 percent throughout his presidency. As for Trump, his approval numbers generally stayed relatively static in the low 40s. His approval numbers when he left office was similar to Bush 43, at 34 percent.
What you say makes a lot of sense. But, as you would guess, I have a couple of counterpoints.
I'm several years older than Biden but I'm certain the withdrawal from Afghanistan would not have been bungled so badly under my administration. Same for the fiasco at the southern border. Also, with veto power, any conscientious President could have made sure money was spent more wisely than what is in the legislation passed by a democrat congress with the help of a few Republican idiots. Biden has always been a fool who once had an engaging personality when he wanted to.
Harris would lose control of the Senate if all Republican Senators stayed on point and stayed healthy. Without Republican help there would be no simple majority - only a 50/ 50 split.
Yeah, that would be interesting given control of the Senate relies on the VP tie breaking vote. In a hypothetical of Biden resigning, and Kamala becoming POTUS, there would be a vacancy as VP. No one to break that 50-50 tie. So assuming all GOPers in the Senate reject Kamala's VP choice as per the 25th amendment, deadlocking the Senate, there is no VP to break the tie. That's a good point Curtis. Ultimately, I think Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, and other more left leaning Republicans would vote for Kamala's VP choice. I don't think the politics of blocking a President's VP choice is good. In any case, I think the GOP has a good chance of taking over Congress in 2022, with the Senate a harder reach, but entirely within reach.
Or she could just nominate Mitt Romney for VP and get twofer.
And, in addition to my first reply, I would have hired better help.