Aug 21, 2021 4 min read

If President Biden were merely the crazy old uncle who likes to sniff hair, does erratic things, can’t remember what he’s talking about, shows his hairy legs to little children and falls asleep after lunch, that would be one thing. But he’s not. For some reason most will never understand, he is the president of the United States, and the strange things he says, the stuff he can’t remember and the erratic things he does can have a profound effect on millions of people.

Biden is the commander in chief of the most powerful military force in the world, or at least it was before he took over, and is expected to act like a commander and be capable of command decisions. During times of crisis, the commander in chief is expected to be in the command center, in communication with his military, intelligence and diplomatic staffs. A commander in chief needs to have literally hundreds of facts at his fingertips and be capable of real time rational thought and critical thinking. That is not Joe Biden, and it never was. Biden is deteriorating and the country is suffering for it.

The recent situation in Afghanistan is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. From beginning to end, the decisions regarding military withdrawal were seriously flawed. The withdrawal was precipitous, against the advice of his military commanders and others. The decision to withdraw was wrong in the first place, but that is another issue. Once the decision is made, there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. The way it was done resulted in nothing but mass chaos and the Taliban marching unopposed through the country in a matter of a couple weeks. A nation cannot simple cut and run like Biden.

Among other things, the United States has a serious obligation to protect the many Afghans that have worked with us for many years. The deal generally is that they will be given special visas to the United States. What Biden has done is abandon most of them and their families to certain death at the hands of the Taliban. Then, there are many thousand Americans in Afghanistan for various reasons. These people have also been abandoned. They will not fare well either. Allowing the Taliban to seize the country as they have means that any Afghan soldiers captured will die terrible deaths, and any female under age 30 may well become a sex slave.

Then there is the matter of billions of dollars of frontline military equipment abandoned in the withdrawal. Even in colonial days, when an army retreated, it “spiked” its canons so they could not be used by the enemy. Our military left perfectly usable Humvees, helicopters, artillery, small arms and ammunition. Why? A little planning and much of that could have been removed or destroyed.

We’ve all seen the horrible scenes at the airport. If the military were not forced by Biden to abandon Bagram Airbase, we would not be seeing these gut-wrenching visuals. Bagram is a large and defensible military base equipped for such operations. Another part of a terrible plan.

So Biden had developed a terribly flawed plan, executed at the wrong time and during its execution it is hard to say that he was even aware of what was happening as he was in hiding at Camp David “on vacation” and out of touch with critical staff. Finally, he goes on TV and blames everyone but himself. This is not a person who deserves to be commander in chief or president or anything else. Because of his actions or lack of actions, thousands of people will die and many more will suffer unimaginable atrocities. The sacrifices of many thousand brave Americans who fought in Afghanistan and many who gave their lives will be dishonored.

Biden is a danger to this nation and he must be replaced immediately. It would save a great deal of angst if he would resign as I’m sure even he must suspect he should. Unfortunately, such a move would no doubt be opposed by Assistant President “call me doctor” Jill Biden. He could reasonably be removed by utilizing the 25th Amendment, as has been proposed by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida. This can be a lengthy and very political process, so is probably not truly practical. There are probably grounds for impeachment but, as we know, unless one party controls both Houses, this is a practical impossibility. Resignation is the most practical path.

Dave Ball is president of the Washington County Republican Party and a Peters Township councilman.