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People who can’t make decisions

Afghan government soldier take a selfie inside abandoned Bagram airbase, July 2021. Photo: AFP

People who can’t make up their minds shouldn’t be elected to positions where making decisions is a job requirement. Conservatives in and out of government are sending a lot of mixed signals lately. But they know what they think, by god, even if they make little sense.

Were Walter Becker and Donald Fagen thinking of this when they named Pretzel Logic?

Sean Hannity believes President Biden has failed in not having already rescued every last American in Afghanistan. But he is not so single-minded about it that he cannot segue into an advertisement:

“How would you like to be in Kabul today, as an American, and you can’t get to the airport?” he asked listeners. “Where are you thinking your life is headed? If you’re one of those family members, I bet you’re not sleeping. I don’t even think MyPillow can do it.

“MyPillow.com. That’s where I go. I fall asleep faster, I stay asleep longer. These are going to be a lot of sleepless nights for so many of our fellow Americans. We’ve got to get them home.”

But not THEM! says Tucker Carlson. For god’s sake, don’t bring Afghan refugees here!

Hannity, Carlson, and their audiences are angry, very angry, that President Biden has not extracted from Taliban territory every American and Afghan ally who wants to leave. It’s just that they prefer that the Air Force fly the refugees out of Afghanistan and drop them off in some random country somewhere. In the middle of anywhere that’s not here.

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1428501993811857415?s=20

We are a seriously confused people.

The only Afghan territory Americans control at this point is the perimeter of the Hamid Karzai International Airport.

So, I’m done with those condemning Joe Biden for not doing what we are in no position to do anyway. Pundits — the only ones being given air time are Biden critics — are long on criticism and short on remedies. The administration believed they would have more time to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies. Well, they didn’t.

What do Biden critics propose we do now? Send gunships and ground troops into Kandahar? Into Bagram to secure the abandoned air base? Into Jalalabad? Do they propose Americans battle the Taliban in Kabul’s streets to secure an access corridor to the airport for civilians not killed in the crossfire? What?

You know the answer. They have none.

Instead of kicking the can down the road, Biden made the tough decision, one the public supports, and he’s sticking by it.

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