Kabul Collapse Kiboshes Biden Honeymoon

Dozens of flights set out each day, carrying thousands of evacuees — although in the chaos at the airport, several planes left with only a handful of passengers. As of this writing, America has extricated 17,000 people from Afghanistan, with other Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait accepting refugees. On Sunday the Pentagon ordered commercial airliners to join the effort, which is hoped will bring the number of evacuees to tens of thousands.

And if a week ago the order was to pull forces out pell-mell, this week the administration is singing a different tune. Now Biden is saying that American troops will stay in Afghanistan well into next month, even past his original stated deadline of September 11, the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Suddenly, US military personnel are expanding their hold on the Kabul airport, in a last-ditch attempt to get out as many people as possible. But all this is seen as too little, too late.

The shocking images of mothers handing their babies over the barbed-wire fence to Western soldiers, the rescue of Afghani government officials as their families are left behind, and the Taliban’s brutal reprisals against anyone who cooperated — all speak directly to Biden’s failure of leadership.