Blaming the ruling party for every mess is a distinct trait of American politics. Be it the infrastructure plan, budgetary mess, or now the Afghan war crisis, this stands true.
Despite ruling the United States for almost twelve out of the twenty years of the Afghan war, all Republicans are doing is blaming the seven-month President Biden.
As the Taliban made decisive progress in capturing different cities of Afghanistan, the US legislature is more divided than ever.
As Donald Trump slammed President Biden for Afghanistan’s failure, almost all the Republican party has jumped on the bandwagon and is putting the blame of the inherited mess on the new administration.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, was released from a Pakistani jail under Trump’s pressure.
Now he is going to lead the Taliban’s government after the end of the Afghan war in Kabul. This depicts that Republicans imprinted the real mess, and not Democrats.
Republicans, not Democrats, are the Reason Behind Afghanistan Mess
The so-called peace negotiations between the United States and the Afghan Taliban were intensified under Trump’s tenure.
Trump even promised the Taliban to leave Afghanistan in May 2021, a deadline which Biden did not observe.
Undoubtedly the mess in Afghanistan could have been dealt with in a better way; however, Republicans are to be blamed more than Democrats as per the data.
The war was started by a Republican president, George Bush, along with his other faulty endeavors.
By ignoring the experts’ warnings and the international relations theoretical frameworks, Republican presidents heavily undermined Taliban power in the Afghan war.
Just like the Afghan war, George W. Bush even started the Iraq war, defying all the warnings from the international human rights watchdogs as well as the United Nations.
And after wasting a lot of resources and creating local warring groups, the US admitted that it was the preemptive strikes.
Democrats Need to Tackle Propaganda Once Again
The anti-Democrats narrative of Republicans is so strong that it has started causing a dip in Democrats’ popularity.
The latest data shows that Biden’s popularity has nosedived in the recent days after the Afghan withdrawal.
As per the reports, Biden’s popularity fell down by seven percent among Americans and hit a new low since the start of his presidency because of the Taliban’s takeover.
Even during his election campaign, Trump vigorously used this narrative and tried to take all credits for the US withdrawal of Afghanistan.
In April, Joe Biden called on the Taliban to extend the withdrawal date to Sept 11. On that occasion, Trump criticized the government once again by saying that the Biden administration wanted to lengthen the process. Further, he demanded a swift withdrawal of the US forces.
On the other hand, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), appearing on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, said that Biden is “going to have blood on his hands” over the swift withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
Both of these statements are inherently contradictory and posing Republicans’ stance towards hypocritic practices.
Started By Bush, Watered by Trump: Democrats Inherited Afghan War Mess Every Time
According to recent reports and analyses, the United States spent more than $2 trillion in Afghanistan, which becomes daily spending of $300M roughly.
And from this money, $83 billion was only spent on training and equipping a 300,000 already vanquished Afghan army, which folded in the weeks.
Blaming the highly unstable regime of the Ghani administration would also be a falsified approach because the administration, with improper structures, was bound to fail and cannot be blamed.
Over the years, the US administrations, including Republicans, exaggerated the Afghan force’s capability to defend the country. However, now it seems that all the models were wrongfully constructed.
Even the military experts are suggesting that Republicans are at least, if not more, as much responsible as Democrats.
John R. Allen and Dana Pittard have also indicated that the GOP is responsible and answerable for the blunder in Afghanistan.
The biggest blunder was made by George W. Bush, a Republican president, when the Taliban agreed to hand Bin Laden over to the third country for investigation, based on the talks.
Bush never pursued the talks, and Bin Laden survived for ten more years before he was neutralized in 2011.
In 2019, the Trump administration unilaterally decided to start negotiations with the Taliban to withdraw US and NATO forces from Afghanistan.
At the time, the US military leadership also warned Trump’s government of dire consequences for sudden decisions, but all warnings and reports were treated as a joke to laugh at.
Final Thoughts
Blaming the incumbents is the easiest way for the opposition parties to do political point-scoring.
But this trend is getting out of hand now. This should also act as an eye-opener for President Biden, always seeking Republican unity despite their continuous efforts to defame the Democratic party.
Similarly, busting the propaganda should also be in the cards for Biden, as consistent blackmailing from Republicans has made matters worse.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.