The Taliban seizure of Kabal means the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban regime. With reports of rape and murder, the withdrawal and the abandonment of the Afghan people is an epic failure of leadership from the Biden administration and a very dark chapter in American history.
The ill-advised and rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan has left our allies wondering if the United States can ever be trusted again. The Biden administration’s underestimation of the power of the Taliban and overestimated abilities of Afghanistan's arming has left the Afghani people hung out to dry. This comes as civilians have been shot at the airport as they try to flee the country and is reminiscent of other American foreign policy failures like Vietnam and the Obama withdrawal from Iraq.
What makes it worse is that the administration has gone into hiding. The Biden press secretary Jen Psaki and Biden himself are both on vacation and they refuse to take any calls or responsibility. Fox News reports that White House press secretary Jen Psaki is taking a break from her duties. At the same time. this controversy surrounds the silence of Joe Biden, who is on vacation while the Taliban quickly seizes control of Afghanistan.
Fox News sent questions to Psaki’s White House email address Sunday morning and received an autoreply. Hours later on Sunday evening, Fox News attempted once again to reach the White House spokeswoman. The same autoreply, stating that the voice of the White House would not be available for the next week, was sent.
Biden was pathetic enough to try to blame the previous administration for this failure saying that:
“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor—which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019—that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021, deadline on U.S. Forces. Shortly before he left office, he also drew U.S. Forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500. Therefore, when I became President, I faced a choice—follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our Forces and our allies’ Forces out safely or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict. I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”
This is the same president that had no problem trying to reverse everything else that the previous administration did. For example, canceling the Keystone Pipeline, reversing oil drilling regulations, put the drilling moratorium on federal lands, he’s trying to rejoin the ill-advised Iranian nuclear deal that will eventually give Iran a path to a nuclear weapon. Besides, it wasn’t necessarily the policy of withdrawing from Afghanistan that was the problem, the problem was the execution of the plan.
It was Biden that made a declaration that all 2,500 U.S. troops would be out of Afghanistan by the end of the summer, and it was up to him to have a plan. Biden, who said just a week ago, that Kabul would not fall has to admit his miscalculation. On Sunday Afghan President Ashraf Ghani relinquished power as the Taliban entered Kabul, according to Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Miraka, who confirmed there would be a transfer of power. Ghani reportedly left the country on Sunday.
This massive geopolitical blunder is also making the United States more dangerous and is making our rivals more powerful. China, for example, has already reached out to the Taliban government trying to use that as leverage to gain more military influence in the region. In the meantime, the Afghanis are running for their lives and liberty as the United States turned their backs on them. U.S. credibility has taken a blow, and, in the future, it will be harder for our allies and future partners to trust us.
It also gives China more control of the rare earth minerals that are supposed to be vital to the Biden administration plans to electrify the nation’s auto and truck fleet. Afghanistan has major reserves of rare earth minerals and no doubt China has its eyes on potential future development.
I guess we should not be surprised that this was another major geopolitical mistake by the Biden administration. Joe Biden has a history of making bad decisions on almost every major foreign policy issue throughout his history in the Senate and being on the wrong side of history consistently. The U.S. press covered up his history of poor judgment and now the American people must live with the list of bad decisions that this administration continues to make.
China’s crude oil processing last month also fell to the lowest level daily since May 2020 as independent refiners cut production in the face of tighter quotas, elevated inventories and falling profits. China is the world’s biggest oil importer.
Yet on the flip side, U.S. oil inventories will continue to tighten as reports of another 1.786 in crude supply in Cushing, Oklahoma is giving the crude oil market support. Oil is also focused on topical storm activity in the Atlantic that could shut in production and impact oil imports and exports. Tropical Storm Fred and Tropical Depression Grace are going to be watched by the trade.