Aug 26, 2021 2 min read

I thought the “Misses” in your “Hits and Misses” section (“… key issues making headlines recently …”) of the Aug. 20 edition of the Observer-Reporter were quite remarkable. You highlighted Haiti nudging out Bangladesh as “the world’s basket case,” and you reported the latest words that the woke children at Brandeis University find offensive. While these are really “key issues making headlines,” I suggest the editorial staff may have overlooked several more pertinent ones.

For example, how about a “Miss” for President Biden. His incisive decision-making, or lack thereof, permanently undermined our nation’s strategic position in the Middle East and emboldened our enemies worldwide – in the span of a single week. Or better yet, I’d say the president deserves a large red “X” for abandoning 10,000 American citizens and betraying hundreds of Afghani supporters to the vagaries of the atrocious Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Moreover, it was a big “miss” for the president to ignore the combined diplomatic and military advice of his Secretaries of State and Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Commander of U.S. Central Command about the consequences of an exit strategy designed to simply meet a politically expedient (for the president) deadline. (If so, why didn’t they all resign?) Or maybe that illustrious group of advisers failed old Joe by not telling him there was no real withdrawal plan other than to make sure everything was done by the anniversary of 9/11. (If so, why haven’t they all resigned?) And possibly our “the buck stops with me” president might have swung and missed in his speech last week when he blamed everyone but his administration for the catastrophe that has landed on Afghanistan and the U.S.

Your “Hits and Misses” section during a disastrous week for our nation was truly remarkable – not for what it reported, but what it ignored and left unstated about the leadership of our current president and his administration.

Steve Johnson

Washington