Joni Ernst is a Republican Senator for Iowa and apparently understands more about diplomacy than the entire staff of the Biden administration. I say that because when Ernst asked Biden’s Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, how America will carry out diplomatic missions in Afghanistan without Diplomats the 4-Star general seem caught completely off-guard.
“It sounds like there were very little considerations given to diplomatic or military conditions. The diplomatic, again going to conditions-based, the diplomatic end to it, I think Gen. Milley, you also said that the military mission would end on the thirty-first and transition to a diplomatic mission. But I don’t understand how we fulfill a diplomatic mission after Aug. 31 when there are absolutely no diplomats on the ground in Afghanistan. They’re gone. They’ve been evacuated. Who do we hand that mission off to when there’s nobody there to complete it?” Ernst asked.
“So, can you then say that the president directed you, Secretary Austin, to execute an unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan? Unconditional. Aug. 31. Done.”
“Once he made the decision to withdraw, that was the decision, to leave, and we certainly want to make sure that we, we shaped conditions so that our embassy could maintain a presence there and continue to engage the government of Afghanistan. So protection of the embassy was pretty important,” Austin responded.
“Secretary Austin, you are extremely diplomatic in your answers. I can appreciate that. But this was not a conditions-based withdrawal,” Ernst shot back.
Austin’s stunning response paints a terrifying picture. There was no thought or consideration given to future diplomatic measures—Only the plan to evacuate.
Which Biden failed to do.
So where does that leave the US in terms of security in a country that previously harbored terrorists? How will the US ensure it has influence in a country it has spent 20 years defending?
