Competence or lack thereof seems to be the latest stalking horse for pundits aiming their indignation at President Biden for the sadly flawed exit from Afghanistan. Having enjoyed favorable polling numbers since his Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration, Biden has now suddenly become inept and incompetent for the messy departure from the Kabul airport more than a week ago.
The From and Fuller’s weekly interchange of opinions last Thursday in The Spy exemplifies the doom and gloom permeating the media over the Kabul uncoupling. I found it unsettling.
Fortunately, Craig Fuller proposed taking a long view; 20 years of futile combat accounting for nearly 2,500 American lives and thousands of invisible and visible wounds suffered by American soldiers offered Biden little choice but to stanch the literal and figurative bloodletting by pulling out American troops and citizens.
Fuller’s viewpoint, based on his extensive experience with disappointing and disorderly decisions made by our presidents, was refreshing. He brushed aside the “harsh” judgments.
So, this obviously poorly planned withdrawal has drawn a horde of critics questioning the competency of our president for the initially botched exit. While I agree that Biden and his team deserve criticism for a sloppy and deadly pullout, I cannot subscribe to the theory that the president is incompetent. Or that his presidency is doomed to an irrefutable perception of incompetency.
The undercurrent to the scathing attacks is Biden’s age (78) and the alleged decline of his cognitive abilities based on hearsay and unfounded rumors. As Biden is wont to say, “Hey, man, give me a break.”
Was the young President John F. Kennedy incompetent for his authorization of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs incursion in 1961—but suddenly brilliant (and competent) for his handling of the Cuban Crisis in 1962?
Was President George Herbert Walker Bush competent for his adroit leadership during the first Persian War in early 1991—but incompetent and ill-advised for agreeing with a Democratic Congress on a tax hike in 1990 that led to a strong economy under his successor, Bill Clinton? I well understand he disavowed any intention (“read my lips”) to raise taxes during his presidential campaign and then changed his mind when in office.
Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt incompetent for not anticipating Japan’s successful attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, but a paragon of leadership and resolve for overseeing the war-changing assault on the Normandy beaches on D-Day, June 6, 1944?
I could go on and on with other examples of competent vs. incompetent decisions by our presidents. Doing so would be unproductive. Not all decisions—including ones not made–are good ones. Nor are they always ruinous to a presidency.
My point is straightforward: in our poisonous political theater, the knives emerge quickly and contemptibly during a crisis. Sometimes the condemnation is justified. Sometimes it is premature.
A friend referred to the awful scene at the Kabul airport as “one of the most amazing system failures of our lifetime.” This friend is normally averse to apocalyptic statements. Not this time.
A system failure would be 9/11 when nearly 3,000 people, mostly Americans, were killed by terrorists who had hijacked four US aircraft. Well aware of Osama bin Laden and his effective Al Qaeda organization, our intelligence organizations failed to communicate with each other.
I do not believe that anyone accused President George W. Bush of incompetence. Instead, he drew praise for how he handled the response and comforted the nation.
As a longtime Republican who came to Washington as a young staffer with President Reagan and then as chief of staff to Bush 41, Fuller correctly opined during last week’s Spy that questions about Biden’s competency represented a “harsh judgment that was unwarranted…that his choices were terrible and worse.”
Amen, Craig Fuller.
Columnist Howard Freedlander retired in 2011 as Deputy State Treasurer of the State of Maryland. Previously, he was the executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. He also served as community editor for Chesapeake Publishing, lastly at the Queen Anne’s Record-Observer. In retirement, Howard serves on the boards of several non-profits on the Eastern Shore, Annapolis and Philadelphia.
Steve Park says
Howard, We can leave competency on the side. That isn’t really the issue. Biden went forward unilaterally and the blessing of his Sec. Sate and Joint Chief, with a less than fully baked plan, expecting that if there were any problems along the way he could simply use the “its Trumps fault” excuse. Total disregard for the potential outcomes of his decision. Too many of his team didn’t pay enough attention to the many “what ifs ?” Generals and State Department heads get paid to think big issues thru and plan accordingly. There was none of that in this case, and “what if ?” signals that were floated were flatly dismissed. Peoples lives are at stake because of this failure to think decisions thru fully, and he and they should be Heald to account. I am bothered that you can pass off the damage and loss of life so easily!
Your Kennedy example is illustrative. He was surrounded by advisors in the first event that were overly cavalier in their prediction that poorly trained Cuban exiles would be effective operatives in an attempt to overthrow Castro. Failure followed. Kennedy wisely switched out the old team with new deeper thinkers. Biden could learn from both then and now.
https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrC_DewWiVhgC8ARAEPxQt.;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZANDMjAxM18xBHNlYwNzcg–/RV=2/RE=1629866801/RO=10/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwaverlyhs.weebly.com%2fus-history-blog-may-2014—may-2015%2fjfk-his-advisers-part-1/RK=2/RS=MPwU8bMNXxWBkgubxc3nYfZHa.k-
Stephen Schaare says
Hi Steve, “A less than fully baked plan”. Love it! You are the King of understatement! Biden did not even pre-heat the oven.
Such a huge departure for you, thank you.
Never, ever imagined you being at all critical about a Democrat. Thank you.
Also loved your piece on Charlie Watts. What a life! Hard to imagine. All my best to you-Steve
Vic Pfeiffer says
Thank you Howard for putting this current situation in its proper perspective.
James Nick says
Sloppy. Deadly. Botched. Incompetent. Just some of the words Mr Freelander uses to describe the US pullout from Afghanistan. It looks like Mr Freelander has fallen into the mindless group think that has permeated the whole of the media.
It can legitimately be argued whether we should have pulled out of Afghanistan. There are reasonable arguments for and against. But after 20 years we now see that we stood up a paper-tiger army of illiterates, led by an officer corps of incompetents, who would not defend a world-class, award-winning corrupt government. We gave them advanced weapons they could not use effectively, made them dependent on air support and logistic they could not duplicate or maintain, and we gave them truckloads of money that was promptly offshored.
This is not of the Biden administration’s doing. After 20 years, a lot people have their fingerprints all over the FUBAR that is Afghanistan. This includes generations of political and Pentagon leaders, the intelligence community, and last but by far not the least, the military-industrial-complex who wanted to see the Afghanistan gravy train continue on as long as possible. These are the people who own the words sloppy, deadly, botched and incompetent.
As far as I’m concerned, no one has the standing to criticize unless, at the same time, they explain what would have been a better way. How exactly do you withdraw in this situation? It looks like the fall of Saigon because I’m guessing the US military doesn’t have a field manual for how to surrender. Even so, though it was dressed up a “peace” deal, trump effectively signed surrender documents in his deal with the Taliban in February 2020 with gave a date-certain of May, 2021 to pull out. But he was too much of a coward to actually begin the pullout. That’s because everyone on Capitol Hill and in Pentagon knew that their own PR about Afghanistan was just a lot of BS. They knew that whenever a firm decision was made to pullout it would have precipitated the immediate collapse of the Afghan government and army.
So here we are. After three presidents walking around kicking the Afghanistan can, the music finally stopped, and Biden was left standing to clean up the mess.
I also feel compelled to react to Mr Freelander’s assertion that no one ever accused President George W. Bush of incompetence. Say what???? Before trump came along, GWB was the poster child for modern presidential incompetence.
Has Mr Freelander forgotten that in early 2001 CIA analysts produced several reports warning of imminent attacks by Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. And that on August 6, 2001, the CIA delivered a President’s Daily Brief to Bush entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US”?” Has Mr Freelander forgotten Bush’s glib response to the CIA – “All right. You’ve covered your ass” – and his administration’s supine posture leading up to the 9/11 attack? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US
Has Mr Freelander forgotten Weapons of Mass Destruction? Has he forgotten that Bush started a fraudulent war in Iraq based on a purposely fabricated lie that resulted 460,000 deaths, the displacement of orders of magnitude more people, and created the breeding ground for any number of Islamic terrorist organizations such as ISIS? This is incompetence of such dimension that it borders on being a crime.
Has Mr Freelander forgotten the pathetic and anemic response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita? He did a “heck of a job” there, didn’t he Mr Freelander?
Has Mr Freelander forgotten that the Bush administration authored a financial meltdown of breathtaking proportions that very nearly caused the collapse of the entire banking system of the US and a global depression just as they were walking out the door? GWB was to President Obama as trump was to President Biden. GWB and trump both handed off a radioactive mess to their successors then unleashed endless attacks accusing them of incompetence.
Sorry! When seeking to become the acme of incompetence, President Biden is not worthy to touch the hem of GWB’s garments. President Biden has a long, long way to go before he even approaches the incompetence of the last two Republican administrations.
Stephen Schaare says
Hi James, “How exactly do you with draw in this situation”
? Your words. Easy. 1) Have a plan 2)Dispatch 20-25 thousand men (with guns) from the 82nd air bourne 3) Airlift out the Americans and Afghan helpers.
Any other questions?
James Nick says
Step 1. The Agreement
Date Line: BBC. 20 February 2020 (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51689443) – “The US and the Taliban signed an “agreement for bringing peace” to Afghanistan after more than 18 years of conflict. The US and NATO allies have agreed to withdraw all troops within 14 months (ed. by May, 2021) if the militants uphold the deal. President Trump said it had been a “long and hard journey” in Afghanistan. “It’s time after all these years to bring our people back home,” he said.
Speaking at the White House, Mr Trump said the Taliban had been trying to reach an agreement with the US for a long time. He said US troops had been killing terrorists in Afghanistan “by the thousands” and now it was “time for someone else to do that work and it will be the Taliban and it could be surrounding countries”. “I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show we’re not all wasting time,” Mr Trump added. The agreement will allow US President Donald Trump to show that he has brought troops home ahead of the US presidential election in November.”
Step 2: The Plan
trump had 14 months to formulate The Plan. But he is advised that if he pulls the trigger on any evacuation plan the Afghan army would likely dissolve overnight and the corrupt government would immediately follow suit. That would instantly put about 3,000 US troops, 4,000 US citizens, and around 300,000 Afghan civilians in harm’s way. (Numbers from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/us/politics/afghanistan-evacuations-kabul-airport.html)
Step 3: The Punt
With images of the fall of Saigon dancing in his head, trump dithers formulating any plan. To do so would: 1. Signal that he was serious about honoring the terms of surrender to the Taliban that the US signed; 2. Would trigger the immediate collapse predicted just as much as actually implementing a plan; and 3. Most importantly, trump would go down in history as the president that lost the war and have to defend his surrender during his presidential campaign.
But trump loses in a landslide. The dirty work of actually implementing trump’s surrender to the Taliban and withdrawing from Afghanistan falls to his successor. The snake believes he has escaped all blame.
Oh, and about the 20-25K 82nd Airborne (with guns). That’s not happening. At the peak in 2010, the US had over 100,000 boots on the ground.
From: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2016/07/06/a-timeline-of-u-s-troop-levels-in-afghanistan-since-2001/…
“… December 2009: Troops now number more than 67,000, and the situation is deteriorating, with escalating violence and more service members killed. Obama orders in another 33,000 troops to battle al-Qaida militants and a resurgent Taliban.
August 2010: The U.S. force reaches 100,000…”
With 100,000 US troops taking more and more causalities and failing to quell the rising violence does anyone really believe that investing a sizable force into a lost cause and sustaining even more casualties at this point is a good idea? The events at the Kabul airport today effectively drives home that point.
Stephen Schaare says
Hi James, Do not let me confuse you with common sense. Biden is President, and the withdrawal is the issue. Nice try.
AL TOWNSHEND says
We are a week away from the beginning of what could possibly be a greater lossmof American and loyalmAfgans that supported the coolition forces for the past 20 years. The long term effects to the region of leaving billions of dollars on military equiptment may be an even bigger blunder.
Biden is the captain of this ship and his choices of subordinates is a reflection of his compentency.