It now seems apparent who the fall guy will be for the failed Afghanistan withdrawal.
Every military leader serving Joe Biden has proven unwilling to fall on his sword, but they are pointing fingers.
While the damage to Biden has been significant, Secretary of State Blinken may have taken the biggest blow yet via Defense Secretary Austin.
Under the Bus
Much of the focus of these hearings has been on who gave what advice and who called the shots.
We have seen all these generals try to temper their comments about Biden so that he technically could not be put on the spot.
For instance, they all gave their assessments of what should have been done, but none of them would formally say that is what they told Biden.
It is a thin crack, but it is one that Biden can use to slip through.
Secretary Blinken may not have that option.
When it came to making the call regarding when people would be evacuated from Afghanistan and why it was done last-minute, Secretary of Defense Austin had no problem pointing the finger.
He stated, “The call on how to do that and when to do it is really a State Department call.”
He added, “A number of things kind of came together to cause what happened to happen. But again, we provided our input and we certainly would have liked to seen it go faster or sooner.”
That is not going to do Blinken any favors when he gets put on the hot seat.
This has indeed turned into a circular blame game, though.
Biden blamed the generals, and the generals are now blaming Blinken, so who will he blame?
Source: The Hill
