In a throw-back to ancient Rome and the crucifixion of Christ, President Joe Biden proclaimed his innocence in the debacle now playing out in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Pontius Pilate moment in the East Room of the White House was hastily sandwiched into a vacation at Camp David where the President had been holed up over the weekend as the collapse of Afghanistan took place.

Despite Biden's 36 years as a United States Senator and 8 years as second-in-command at the White House under Barack Obama, Biden decried the 20-year history of Afghan incursion as misguided. Few could argue that point. But then he claimed Trump had hollowed out a bad deal for him and the Afghan army had not the will to fight and his back was against the wall and his only choice was between the debacle or sending in more troops and ratcheting up an endless war. A cursory reading of the news of the day lays bare those assertions.

Regarding the Afghan army's will to fight: according to Wikipedia and the Turkish Anadolu Agency reporting declassified figures, "an estimated 7,000 Afghan security forces were killed during 2019. Additionally, between 29 February and 21 July 2020, about 3,560 soldiers were killed."

More to the point is not what Biden and company will have you believe about "Afghan will" but how the Afghan forces had been trained by their Mark Milley mentors.

This in the Wall Street Journal August 14:

The Afghan army fighting alongside American troops was molded to match the way the Americans operate. The U.S. military, the world’s most advanced, relies heavily on combining ground operations with air power, using aircraft to resupply outposts, strike targets, ferry the wounded, and collect reconnaissance and intelligence.

In the wake of President Biden’s withdrawal decision, the U.S. pulled its air support, intelligence and contractors servicing Afghanistan’s planes and helicopters. That meant the Afghan military simply couldn’t operate anymore. The same happened with another failed American effort, the South Vietnamese army in the 1970s, said retired Lt. Gen. Daniel Bolger, who commanded the U.S.-led coalition’s mission to train Afghan forces in 2011-2013.

Then there is the issue of the job Trump did.

When Trump took office there were approximately 8,500 troops deployed or so he thought. Trump announced his Afghan strategy in August 2017. It was based not on nation-building but on an effective response to conditions on the ground: obliterating ISIS, crushing al-Qaeda, thwarting a Taliban takeover, blunting terror attacks before they happen. To that end he authorized and additional 4,000 troops only to find out from the Pentagon days later that there were really 11,000 troops deployed.

With strength in numbers and doubtless recognizing the Taliban would surely run amok should the U.S. leave, Trump via Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sought to negotiate directly with the Taliban. An agreement was reached for a gradual, conditions-based withdrawal over 14 months which encompassed "all military forces of the United States, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel."

Proceeding on a path of orderly withdrawal, the Trump administration on, January 20, 2021, handed off to Biden a downsized peacekeeping force in Afghanistan of 2,500 and a framework for total withdrawal. So for Biden, much of the heavy lifting had been accomplished (something akin to having 3 vaccines ready to go). All Biden had to do was finish the job, a mission he totally botched.

Biden's back was not exactly against the wall. The wailing about the horrible deal Trump left him doesn't ring true. All one need do is look at Biden's tearing up of every Trump initiative immediately upon taking the oath of office and the consequences thereof to suspect otherwise: no longer energy independent, a complete breakdown on the border, soaring inflation, crime on the rise, etc.

Pilate assured us the horrific scenes we now are faced with would not happen. And Pilate sent back 6,000 troops to Afghanistan. And Pilate washed his hands of responsibility.