#Afghanistan didn’t have to fall the way you let it

President Joe Biden admitted Monday “the buck stops with me” — but nonetheless stood by his decision to rush troops out of Afghanistan, despite the nightmarish mess he’s leaving behind.

“I am deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision,” he said in a televised speech from the White House. He stands “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw.

Yet he should regret it: The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan over the past few weeks was an utter catastrophe, for Afghans and for world security — and he alone is responsible.  

Biden claims whatever horrors are taking place there now could’ve happened any time we pulled out, whether years from now or years ago, and America simply couldn’t continue to spend blood and treasure on an endless war.

The choice, he asserted, was between ramping up and fighting the Taliban all over again or withdrawing with all the chaos and misery that entails.

Wrong.

Yes, Americans back a withdrawal, after 20 years of maintaining soldiers in that country. But there was no urgent crisis demanding an immediate, haphazard pullout that leaves Afghans at the mercy of monsters — and America less safe. Biden already pushed off President Donald Trump’s May 1, 2021, withdrawal date once; he could’ve done it again (especially given that the Taliban have violated the terms of the agreement) and secured a better arrangement and more planning in the meantime.

This wouldn’t necessarily have forced a surge in American troops there or major outbreaks of fighting. Meanwhile, the cost in US lives and money wasn’t terribly high in recent years: Not a single American soldier has died in Afghanistan in the past 18 months.

Biden now claims we can monitor the resurgence of terror groups under the Taliban from abroad — from “over the horizon,” as he puts it. But that’s far from clear: America didn’t seem to do a very good job watching al Qaeda from the outside as it plotted 9/11 under the Taliban’s protection in 2001.

Nor, as Biden admitted, did his administration predict how swiftly the Taliban would retake the country.

And what kind of message does this send the rest of the world, particularly countries like Russia and China? Or to our allies, who will trust us less? China is already citing the withdrawal as evidence the United States won’t help Taiwan.

Alas, the threat just got higher not only from jihadists but from other enemies as well, who smell weakness and incompetence. Can any American really feel safer today?