#Joe Biden’s defeat will echo for eternity: Devine

The scenes out of Afghanistan are infuriating and tragically predictable. 

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that President Biden and the geniuses surrounding him have made such an almighty hash of the withdrawal from that godforsaken country. 

Look at everything else he has messed up. 

His first act in office was to dismantle hard-won Trump-era border protection measures. The inevitable illegal migrant surge at the southern border has turned into an unchecked invasion, with national security and public health risks that will ricochet through history. 

At this stage we can confidently say that Joe Biden has the reverse Midas touch. 

In Afghanistan it didn’t have to be like this. 

The humiliating scenes of Americans evacuating from Kabul’s airport were avoidable, as is the specter of American helicopters, planes, Humvees, weapons and ammunition in the hands of our enemies. 

But Biden was caught unawares. 

Then he had the gall on Saturday to blame Donald Trump: “When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor.” 

Since Secretary of State Antony Blinken doubled down over the weekend on this dishonest spin, it’s time for some home truths. 

I asked President Trump Sunday about the plan his administration had to get out of Afghanistan —which ultimately was obstructed by the same US generals who gave Biden a green light. 

“We were going to not let people get slaughtered,” Trump said flatly. “I wanted to get out. But you have to get out safely and you have to get out with respect . . . 

“We had all sorts of conditions . . . All civilians were going to come out before the military. Everyone should have been out before they took our military out . . . 

“I was going to close this ridiculous embassy they spent a billion dollars on and move everybody out . . .

“I was going to blow up every military base [before we left]. I was going to take out every single piece of equipment. I said I don’t want anything left [apart from] leave each soldier a gun . . . 

“Plus, I had a relationship with the Taliban where they knew they weren’t allowed to do this. They understood they were going to get hit very hard . . . What I had was conversations with the [Taliban] leadership where I said if you do anything we were going to hit them like they haven’t been hit before.” 

Trump said the Taliban “no longer has fear or respect for America . . . 

“It’s a terrible, terrible black eye for this country. 

“We’re a laughingstock. The whole world can’t believe it. 

“And there was no reason for it.” 

Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who began negotiating with the Taliban in February 2020 to lay down conditions for a US withdrawal, has corroborated Trump’s version of events. 

Pompeo was in the room when Trump warned the Taliban’s senior negotiator, Mullah Baradar, that if a single American was hurt or threatened the entire wrath of American power would rain down on them. 

“We never trusted the Taliban,” he told Fox News Sunday. “We made abundantly clear . . . we weren’t going to allow them to just walk away from any deal that they had struck. We were going to go crush them, we were going to impose real costs on them. We weren’t going to let them take these provincial capitals. They understood that American power was going to come to their village, to their community, to their friends and family.” 

You can bet the Taliban believed Trump would make good on his threat. 

Meanwhile, where was President Biden while Kabul fell? Silent. Having another holiday at Camp David. The White House tweeted out a still photo of him taking notes while watching a video conference of his national security team. Very reassuring. 

The American people wanted out of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, but they had a right to expect the exit would be managed competently. 

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Blinken Sunday why the Biden administration didn’t evacuate people before withdrawing the military. 

It’s a question, said Tapper, “of how poorly this was done. The idea that President Biden ordered 2,500 service members out and now is sending up to 5,000 service members back in [to evacuate people left behind], does that not on its face show that the exit was inadequately planned?” 

Blinken simply had no answer. He kept trying either to blame Trump or pretend that the only alternative to this self-inflicted debacle was a forever war. 

How inane Biden’s conceit looks now, when he was wandering around the G-7 in June telling anyone who would listen that “America is back” and that he had single-handedly restored America’s global leadership and credibility after Trump had ruined it. 

He has just been busy making us less safe. He is wokifying the military, injecting the poison of critical race theory and transgender ideology to divide the troops, while launching a witch hunt to identify some mythical “enemy within.” 

It seems like only yesterday that Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was barking at a Republican member of Congress about “white rage.” 

This lawless, feckless administration has wreaked untold damage at warp speed in seven months. These aren’t mistakes that you can bounce back from. They will have ramifications well into the future.