With leaks and other revelations beginning to help piece together the surreal decision-making behind the Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal, a growing number of pundits and armchair analysts wondered if there weren’t method in the madness.
But depending on the outcome, that could make it the biggest betrayal of American interests in history or the boldest covert operation ever conducted.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson became one of the most prominent to float the theory that the Biden administration’s chaos in Kabul had gone perfectly according to plan, giving the cover needed to import hundreds of thousands of new visa-holding refugees prior to Democrats’ plan to slip amnesty into their upcoming budget bill.
“It may not be propaganda,” Carlson said of the recent victory-lap speeches from President Joe Biden and others.
“It’s starting to seem like everyone in the Biden administration actually believes they just won,” Carlson continued. “Maybe what looks like chaos is in fact a plan of sorts, and maybe that plan is working just fine.”
As Carlson noted, such a plan does not appear to account for the billions in military equipment (not to mention American citizens and allies) that were left behind in the process.
But those, too, may be explainable by considering Biden’s recently leaked phone call from July with then-Afghan president Ashraf Ghani.
“There are agreements with the Taliban that we are not previously aware of, and because of your air force was extremely cautious in attacking them,” Ghani said, questioning the apparent cooperation between US forces and the Islamic militant group prior to the fall of Kabul.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, has since praised the Taliban for being “helpful and useful” in providing security during the withdrawal process.
And Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, floated the possibility that the US may continue to collaborate with the Taliban in counter-terrorism efforts against the resurgent ISIS.
The cordiality with the group, after it commandeered billions of dollars in US property, would seem to suggest that the arms were part of the negotiation process for the withdrawal.
It calls to mind the convoluted Reagan-era Iran–Contra scandal, during which the US secretly helped funnel weapons to Iran in return for the release of hostages while appearing as though it were trying, instead, to arm and train freedom fighters in Nicaragua.
In the current case, however, America appears to be giving up both the arms and the hostages.
What Biden gets in return for this quid-pro-quo bargain remains anyone’s guess. But in all likelihood the agreement marks a capitulation to China, Russia and Iran—the principal actors in a growing strategic alliance in the region that may ultimately rival NATO.
While such actions would appear to be an utter betrayal of US interests, some have questioned whether the CIA—which likely maintains its presence in the region as an arm of the US State Department—may yet have a few tricks up its sleeve.
Just as US intelligence forces likely were responsible for infiltrating domestic anti-government groups in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 US Capitol revolt, some speculated that the spy agency may be using the abandoned equipment as a sort of Trojan horse to infiltrate and track Islamic extremists.
Y’all don’t think these vehicles have tracking on them. Y’all don’t think these vehicles wont be hit by drone strikes. Same with the helicopters.
— RussellTheRealtor (@RussellTheReal2) September 1, 2021
Either explanation—a scandalous betrayal gone wrong; or a complex, deep-state operation—might explain why the administration has been so cavalier about the loss of blood and treasure, as well as the future quagmire it creates for national security.
While the 78-year-old Biden is left facing the political fallout either way, framing the operation as an intelligence failure gives covert operatives the latitude to execute countless other maneuvers and missions that might elicit even greater public outrage.
As Biden told Ghani, “there’s a need—whether it is true or not—there is a need to project a different picture.”
