President Biden blamed the chaotic fall of Kabul on the failure of the Afghans to fight back, in a defiant defense of his decision to withdraw troops. That does not excuse his administration’s failure to recognize the possibility that the country could be taken over by the Taliban in days, not months.
No doubt there will be hearings in Congress but they will be political in nature and will accomplish nothing. The president is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and he alone has the power to move and remove the military as he sees fit once the Congress authorizes military actions. Congress has also given the president the authority to act militarily in emergencies.
It was President Harry Truman who authorized the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ended WWII. The first bomb, dropped on the city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, resulted in a total death toll of around 140,000. The second, which hit Nagasaki on 9 August, killed around 50,000 people. Truman offered no apologies.
While Biden said the words “The Buck Stops Here” he gave an 18 minute speech on Wednesday August 17 placing blame for the chaos at Kabul’s airport on everyone but his administration.
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