UK Parliament Makes Unprecedented Decision to Hold Biden in Contempt
President Biden’s mishandling of the Afghanistan withdrawal may yet prove to be the defining stretch of his administration.
The Taliban’s swift takeover of the country — which the president, only weeks prior, came just short of guaranteeing would not happen so quickly — has left between 10,000 and 15,000 American citizens forsaken within the borders of a country now controlled by terrorists.
The U.S. isn’t the only nation with a presence in Afghanistan, however. Abandoning the country with such haste has also left thousands of foreign citizens from our friends and allies at risk as well.
The U.K. Daily Mail reported on Wednesday that “the UK faces a desperate race to evacuate 6,000 Britons and eligible Afghans amid scenes of stampeding crowds and Islamist fanatics.”
Because of this, on Wednesday, the British Houses of Parliament decided to hold Biden’s handling of the situation in contempt, with lawmakers condemning his withdrawal plan as “catastrophic” and “shameful,” according to The Telegraph.
Members of parliament from across the political spectrum were forceful in their rebuke of Biden.
“The American decision to withdraw was not just a mistake — it was an avoidable mistake, from President Trump’s flawed deal with the Taliban to President Biden’s decision to proceed, and to proceed in such a disastrous way,” Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey said.
Other liberal members of parliament, including Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer and Labour MPs Chris Bryant and Khalid Mahmood, denounced the president as well.
“The Biden government have just come in and, without looking at what is happening on the ground, have taken a unilateral decision, throwing us and everybody else to the fire,” Mahmood said.
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Many of these MPs took specific offense to Biden’s criticism of Afghan soldiers and the Afghan army.
The Tory chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Tom Tugendhat, spent some time fighting alongside those soldiers, so he didn’t mince any words when addressing the president’s “shameful” comments.
“To see their commander in chief call into question the courage of men I fought with, to claim that they ran, is shameful,” he said, with The Telegraph noting that several MPs murmured in approval.
Conservative leaders also joined in on the condemnation.
Lord Howard, a former Tory leader, described Biden’s withdrawal as “a catastrophic mistake which may well prove to be the defining legacy of his presidency.”
Howard is on the money with that remark.
The many shocking pictures and videos that came out following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan won’t soon be forgotten.
Chaotic scenes as Afghans attempt to cling to US Air Force plane departing from Kabul
Latest: https://t.co/eRDvQGay6B pic.twitter.com/moOTTuxoF9
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 16, 2021
Desperate civilians scramble to get a place on a plane at Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Monday amid the US withdrawal.
For many, it brought back memories of Vietnam in April 1975 pic.twitter.com/fwztFFCUfG
— TRT World (@trtworld) August 16, 2021
Taliban leaders took over the presidential palace in Kabul and said they plan to soon declare a new “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” two decades after they were removed by the U.S. military https://t.co/sMLoNEAL6o pic.twitter.com/NvcWeCjmKv
— Bloomberg (@business) August 16, 2021
These images will follow Joe Biden for the rest of his life.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
