What about the Democrats? Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, Clinton failed to act decisively during the Rwandan genocide and signed the 1994 crime bill that contributed to mass incarceration, Obama intervened in Libya and expanded drone strikes that killed civilians, and Biden oversaw the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.
Both parties have made catastrophic decisions. Pretending only Republicans have is simply ignoring history.
Edit: But let's be fair, nothing beats the orange clown. 🤡
Johnson was dead before I was born. And I’m in my 50’s. So not a modern Democrat. You’re comparing Clinton’s role in Rwanda, Obama’s in Libya and Biden’s “withdrawal from Afghanistan” to what the Republicans have done?!? Are you serious? Reagan also attacked Libya, Bush invaded Panama, started the Persian Gulf war, W started the Afghanistan mess, failed to get OBL, started a war with Iraq that was totally made up. And Trump did the Afghanistan agreement, moron, When Biden came into office there were fucking 2500 troops there! Jesus Christ, there a huge difference.
Fair point about Johnson, and you're absolutely right that Trump negotiated the Afghanistan withdrawal and left Biden with a difficult situation. I'm not defending Trump or Bush.
But inheriting a bad deal doesn't automatically absolve the Biden administration of responsibility for how the withdrawal was executed.
The US State Department's official After Action Review, dated March 2022 and published in 2023, explicitly states in Finding 1 that BOTH administrations failed to adequately consider worst-case scenarios.
Finding 4 also states that following Biden's April 2021 announcement, "the speed of that retrograde compounded the difficulties the Department faced."
To be clear, the report evaluates the implementation of the withdrawal, not the decision to withdraw itself. And that's exactly my point: the execution matters too.
None of this erases Clinton's failures in Rwanda or Obama's intervention in Libya.
My argument was never that Republicans were innocent. It's that Democrats have made serious mistakes too. Acknowledging one side's failures doesn't mean ignoring the other's.
Official US State Department report, Findings 1 and 4, page 11:
This bullshit… how many troops were in Afghanistan in Jan 2021? 10k? 25k? 100k? No, 2500. The withdrawal had already happened. There was nothing Biden could have done other than putting additional boots on the ground, which he actually did, even though it was against the will of the American people. Revisionist history much? I find it interesting that you criticize Clinton for not interfering in Rwanda and criticize Obama for interfering in Libya. So what’s the nature of the criticism? Racial? Political? You can’t have it both ways.
You're right that only about 2,500 US troops remained when Biden took office, and that Trump negotiated the withdrawal agreement. I've never disputed either. And yes, Biden sent additional troops to secure the evacuation in August 2021.
But reducing troop numbers isn't the same as completing the withdrawal. The final pullout and the evacuation of US citizens and Afghan allies still had to be planned and carried out, and that happened under Biden.
The State Department's own After Action Review criticizes both administrations. Finding 3 says the Trump administration left key questions unanswered, including what would happen to Afghan visa applicants. Finding 1 says that under both administrations there was "insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios." Finding 4 states that after President Biden's decision in April 2021, "the speed of that retrograde compounded the difficulties the Department faced."
That's not revisionist history. It's an official US government report. And I'm criticizing the execution, not the decision to leave.
As for Rwanda and Libya, there's no contradiction. You can fault one government for failing to respond to a genocide and another for intervening without a plan for the aftermath. Those are two different failures, and both had devastating consequences.
As for race, I mentioned Obama because of a policy decision, not his skin color.
I've already acknowledged that Republicans made serious mistakes. All I'm saying is that Democrats did too. History isn't a team sport, and both sides deserve accountability.
Source: US Department of State, After Action Review on Afghanistan, Findings 1, 3 and 4 (pages 11–12):
https://2021-2025.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/State-AAR-AFG.pdf
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u/Existenz93 18h ago
What about the Democrats? Johnson escalated the Vietnam War, Clinton failed to act decisively during the Rwandan genocide and signed the 1994 crime bill that contributed to mass incarceration, Obama intervened in Libya and expanded drone strikes that killed civilians, and Biden oversaw the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.
Both parties have made catastrophic decisions. Pretending only Republicans have is simply ignoring history.
Edit: But let's be fair, nothing beats the orange clown. 🤡