Biden lied, they died.
That’s no longer just an accusation. It’s now a fact, with Tuesday’s Senate testimony shredding President Biden’s nonsensical fictions about Afghanistan and confirming that he alone made the fateful decisions that created the chaotic and deadly withdrawal.
We now know for certain what was suspected all along — that the president rejected the advice of his top military aides about how to reduce the troop numbers while keeping the Taliban in check. He also falsely claimed to the public that al Qaeda was no longer in Afghanistan and declared the withdrawal a ringing success.
Reluctantly, but clearly, his commanders begged to differ. One by one, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said they advised the president either to keep 2,500 troops in Kabul or supported the proposal.
All three also said al Qaeda remains in Afghanistan and, as Milley put, is still at war with us. And none dared call the conclusion a success.
“The war is lost,” Milley said. “The enemy is in control in Kabul.”
The tone of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing belied the bombshell testimony. There were no political histrionics and, for a welcome change, Democrats and Republicans followed similar lines of questioning, with the result that the devastating answers were mostly delivered in clipped, matter-of-fact style.
Although a Dem here and there tried to blame former President Donald Trump for his original agreement with the Taliban, there was no serious effort to sugarcoat Biden’s blunder.
Clearly, the president’s attempts to deceive the public were part of the events that put our vaunted military in the weak, vulnerable position of protecting a mass evacuation from a civilian airport in a city overrun by the Taliban.