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The View | Biden’s oil and gas policy makes about as much sense as his Afghan policy
- Biden has done everything to obstruct US oil and gas producers in the name of fighting climate change – while imploring Saudi Arabia, Russia and others to increase oil production to keep pump prices down
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Few would disagree with former US vice-president Mike Pence’s view that President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan “is a foreign-policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis”.
In his memoir, Robert Gates, who served as defence secretary for the Obama administration, famously wrote that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades”.
It would seem that the disaster in Afghanistan is only the latest blunder in a foreign policy record filled with them.
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Over the past few days, the world has watched news clips of chaos at Kabul airport with civilians clinging to US military aircraft in a desperate attempt to escape retribution by the victorious Taliban.
US diplomats, stunned by the speed of the Afghan military’s capitulation to Taliban fighters, were reduced to imploring the militant leadership with financial aid and other incentives not to storm the US embassy in Kabul – the embassy which had flown the rainbow LGBT flag to mark Pride Month in June and showcase American commitment to “inclusivity”.
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The full extent of the US debacle was revealed when the State Department admitted that the Biden administration “cannot ensure safe passage” for thousands of trapped Americans to travel to Kabul airport.
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