Uncle Joe did not know best
After fouling up the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the president blames Afghans and his predecessor
IT WAS ONCE usual for America’s leaders to take the rap for a policy catastrophe on their watch. Dwight Eisenhower drafted a provisional mea culpa on the eve of D-Day. John F. Kennedy accepted “sole responsibility” for the Bay of Pigs. “The buck stops here” read the woodcut that Harry Truman kept on his Oval Office desk. Joe Biden used the same phrase this week in reference to the fiasco in Afghanistan, but in a spirit of defiance, not contrition.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Remnants of a policy”
United States August 21st 2021
From the August 21st 2021 edition
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