CRISIS President Joe Biden, meeting with his national security
team at the White House, is desperate to put the Afghanistan debacle in the rearview mirror.
administration so far. And at least some of those injuries, analysts associated with both parties say, were self-inflicted. The Biden White House was relieved to see the last evacu-
ation flight take off on Aug. 30, marking the end of the U.S.- Afghanistan operation. Yet putting the debacle in the rearview mirror may not
be so easy. Hundreds of American citizens and thousands of Afghan allies were left behind as that last jet left the tarmac. Their fate is uncertain but appears grim. Another unknown: whether a
surging Taliban and resurgent ISIS will try to bring the jihad home to Americans in the form of terror attacks. “The key point about Afghanistan
is that Biden now owns the terror issue, and any new attack will be directly laid at his doorstep,” adds Morris. As Leon Panetta, former secretary
nario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and security forces.” Why indeed? And now attention turns to whether Biden
and Democrats can recover from the Biden presidency’s disastrous opening chapter. The first big test will come next November in the mid-
Even congressional Democrats, hoping to stave off a bloodbath in next year’s midterms, have begun asking tough questions about the hasty, chaotic exit.
of defense and CIA director under Barack Obama, remarked to CNN: “We can leave a battlefield, but we can’t leave the war on terrorism which is still a threat to our security.” That’s especially the case if terrorists infiltrate the U.S.
through a bleeding southern border that was relatively locked down and safe prior to Biden’s inauguration. Amid the drumbeat of bad news, GOP whispers over
Biden’s competence and leadership seemed to be taking hold with voters. Even congressional Democrats, hoping to stave off a bloodbath in next year’s midterms, have begun asking tough questions about the hasty, chaotic exit. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark War-
ner, D-Va., said he hoped a probe by his committee would uncover “why we weren’t better prepared for a worst-case sce-
natural resource that nations sought was gold. In the atomic age, it may have been uranium. But now that the world has fully entered the information age, nations thirst for lithium, a rare earth metal found in Afghanistan.
And Biden just handed over the rights
back to the Taliban — with China hovering nearby.
Although China may not invade Taiwan,
Carafano said it’s using America’s display of weakness to taunt the Taiwanese. “The Chinese have always wanted to win without fighting . . . to have no direct conflict with the United States.
terms. Democrats came into the year expecting a hard-fought battle to hold onto their House majority and were confident they’d hold onto the Senate. Realists in both parties are suggesting Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might want to keep a moving van on standby for her office. While political fortunes can always shift, Democrats’ chances of maintaining con- trol of the House now appear to be fading. “Most likely,” says Morris, “he will
lose Congress in 2022, and 2024 will depend on how he handles the defeat. If he follows the model of Bill Clinton and triangulates, moving to the center, and if the Republican Congress is too extreme in its proposals, he could play off that and win in ’24 — assuming he’s able to run.”
But that also assumes Biden can function in the mode of
former President Bill Clinton as a nimble political athlete. And that remains to be seen. Brad Blakeman, the Republican strategist who served as a
top White House aide to then-President George W. Bush, tells Newsmax he doubts Biden can mount a political comeback — especially with a rabid left wing led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez constantly barking at his heels. “I think it will be epic,” Blakeman says of the looming
midterm battle. “I believe we’ll take back the House and the Senate. I think the committee that’s now running things in the White House won’t be able to turn it around.” He adds, “My Democratic friends call me and say: ‘You
didn’t hear this from me.’ And then they go on to tell me how screwed up things are.”
“A weakened America — an America
where we have fewer allies — that’s encouraging for them to just wait until the conditions are better,” Carafano said. “Why would they create a global
firestorm by invading Taiwan when they can just do what they’re doing, which is intimidating the Taiwanese, by saying, ‘America’s not going to be there for you.’” With China poised to step into
Afghanistan, China’s reputation as one of the few reliable sources for rare earth metals is elevated. And in this case, lithium is necessary to produce electronics and high-capacity batteries used by electric
vehicles. This comes at a time when Biden and
congressional Democrats are pushing for a green energy policy — a primary goal of a potential $3.5 trillion spending spree, on top of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill the Senate already approved. The irony wasn’t lost on British politician Nigel Farage. “So the West wants to go green
with electric cars. To do that you need lithium for batteries,” Farage tweeted. “Afghanistan has by far the largest lithium deposits in the world, and Biden has just handed them over to China.”
OCTOBER 2021 | NEWSMAX 13
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