President Biden’s mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal may yet prove to be the defining stretch of his administration.
The Taliban’s swift takeover of the country — which the president, only weeks prior, came just short of guaranteeing would not happen so quickly — has left between 10,000 and 15,000 American citizens forsaken within the borders of a country now controlled by terrorists.
The U.S. isn’t the only nation with a presence in Afghanistan, however. Abandoning the country with such haste has also left thousands of foreign citizens from our friends and allies at risk as well.
The U.K. Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that “the UK faces a desperate race to evacuate 6,000 Britons and eligible Afghans amid scenes of stampeding crowds and Islamist fanatics.”
Because of this, on Wednesday, the British Houses of Parliament decided to hold Biden’s handling of the situation in contempt, with lawmakers condemning his withdrawal plan as “catastrophic” and “shameful,” according to The Telegraph.
Members of parliament from across the political spectrum were forceful in their rebuke of Biden.
“The American decision to withdraw was not just a mistake — it was an avoidable mistake, from President Trump’s flawed deal with the Taliban to President Biden’s decision to proceed, and to proceed in such a disastrous way,” Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey said.
Other liberal members of parliament, including Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer and Labour MPs Chris Bryant and Khalid Mahmood, denounced the president as well.
“The Biden government have just come in and, without looking at what is happening on the ground, have taken a unilateral decision, throwing us and everybody else to the fire,” Mahmood said.
Many of these MPs took specific offense to Biden’s criticism of Afghan soldiers and the Afghan army.
The Tory chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat, spent some time fighting alongside those soldiers, so he didn’t mince any words when addressing the president’s “shameful” comments.
