It probably can’t be understated just how badly President Biden’s decision to make a chaotic exit from the war in Afghanistan damaged his presidency. With images of Afghan citizens clinging to aircraft landing gear barreling down a runway, and 13 dead US troops in the wake of a terrorist attack during the withdrawal, the world will not soon forget Biden’s terrible legacy in the region.
Despite warnings and advice from top defense officials, Biden plowed ahead with a botched withdrawal plan abandoning Bagram Air Base, the only fortified position held by US forces in the country.
In the end, Biden’s foreign policy failure became the most-searched term of 2021 with “Afghanistan” topping the list, right next to Covid vaccines, Dogecoin, and meme stocks like Gamestop:
Meme stocks and cryptocurrencies rivaled major sport and the fallout from the Taliban’s rise to power as the biggest search and news trends for Google in 2021.
When searching for news, Google users were mostly interested in Afghanistan, according to the latest annual trending report of Alphabet Inc.’s search giant. The rest of the top places were dominated by Reddit stock favorites such as GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., together with popular cryptocoins Ethereum and Dogecoin.
Biden’s failure in the “News” category came out far ahead of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sitting down with Oprah Winfrey, and far ahead of anything to do with the Jan 6 incident at the Capitol Building.
Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal even topped searches related to Covid-19 for global users over 2021.
Google's most searched news in 2021:
1) Afghanistan
2) AMC Stock
3) COVID Vaccine
4) Dogecoin
5) GME Stock
6) Stimulus Check
7) Georgia Senate Race
8) Hurricane Ida
9) COVID
10) Ethereum Price— Blockworks (@Blockworks_) December 8, 2021
Images like this, of Afghans clinging to US military aircraft risking certain death, have been imprinted into the minds of people all over the world thanks to technology and Biden’s failed policy:
Media outlets seem to be ignoring the Google search trend story, perhaps for partisan reasons not to rehash Biden’s failure from the summer of 2021. For weeks, after the botched withdrawal, the Biden administration had few good answers for the thousands upon thousands of American citizens and residents trapped inside the country under Taliban rule.
As one CNN reporter put it in August of 2021: “If this isn’t failure, then what does failure look like?”
CNN reporter on situation in Afghanistan:
"If this isn't failure then what does failure look like?" pic.twitter.com/qg7uk7neQD
— The First (@TheFirstonTV) August 19, 2021
It also can’t be understated how badly Biden failed to anticipate the immediate rise of the Taliban to fill the vacuum left by US forces. The events surrounding the withdrawal would’ve likely been met with demands for impeachment if Biden was a Republican:
Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal resulted in the deaths of 13 US service members at the Kabul airport, along with scores of Afghan civilians. It inflicted historic damage on American credibility, destabilizing global politics, while leaving millions of Afghans to endure oppression and even starvation under Taliban rule. It was also sold with a dangerous, false narrative: that Afghan forces were strong enough to repel a rapidly advancing Taliban in the absence of American troops on the ground. As White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told it, the Afghan forces “have what they need.”
Such spin, offered repeatedly and in coordination by the White House and Pentagon, was worsened by Biden personally, in a July 23 phone call with the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani.
During the call, the American president encouraged his counterpart to join the deception, and to help undermine clear, observable facts: “I need not tell you,” Biden said to Ghani, “the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan . . . is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. And there is a need, whether it is true or not . . . to project a different picture.”
The media, working as lapdogs for the Biden administration, gleefully helped sweep the mess from the headlines by September despite the damage and disruption caused globally.
As of today, Biden’s continued Afghanistan legacy is one where families are resorting to once again selling away young girls to the highest bidder since the economy immediately collapsed under Taliban rule. A truly sick and desperate situation.
The environment has deteriorated for girls and women so badly the Biden administration has been forced to finally acknowledge it:
Blinken also appointed Stephenie Foster, another State Department veteran, as senior adviser for women and girls issues as part of the agency’s team for Afghan relocation efforts.
The International Rescue Committee ranked Afghanistan last out of 170 countries on women’s rights. According to the U.N., since the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban takeover, women and girls have faced even greater obstacles in getting educations, working or participating in society.
“As more and more Afghans struggle to meet their basic needs, people in vulnerable situations — notably women-headed households with children — are being pushed to take desperate measures, including child labor, the marriage of children to ensure their survival, and — according to some reports — even the sale of children,” Nada Al-Nashif, the U.N. deputy high commissioner for human rights, said this month.
If not for a compliant media, and a public with a short attention span, Biden probably wouldn’t have been able to continue leading the country after such a disgraceful military failure.
While the public generally agreed it was time to get out, the manner in which the withdrawal was executed will go down in history as one the American’s biggest military blunders with Joe Biden leading the disastrous charge.
