Critics Slam Joe Biden's Long-Weekend Silence as Taliban Gains Ground; President Makes Big Afghanistan Blunder

President Joe Biden resumed his vacation on Friday, staying at Camp David while the Taliban rages throughout Afghanistan and other domestic issues mount.

Biden is set to spend the weekend at the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains before returning to his home in Wilmington next week for the remainder of his summer vacation. The R&R comes as the Afghan government crumbles, with provincial capitals falling to the Taliban, who now control the majority of the nation and are closing in on Kabul, the capital.

Biden resumes vacation while crises surge

President Biden is being chastised by Republican leaders for enjoying a long weekend away from the public spotlight as major cities in Afghanistan fall to the Taliban. As the Taliban took Herat and Kandahar, Afghanistan's second and third largest cities, Biden dispatched 3,000 US troops to Kabul to evacuate embassy staff on Thursday, but he hasn't spoken publicly about the issue since Tuesday, Washington Times reported.

The president took no questions as he left the White House on Thursday afternoon for a vacation to his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and he'll be out of sight for many days. Biden left on Friday for Camp David in western Maryland, where he will spend the weekend, but did not speak to the media on the way.

He will likely return to his Wilmington home next week for a vacation break. Biden's weekend plans were justified by White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday, who told reporters that he likes the "beautiful scenery there."

"Biden must immediately focus all efforts on ensuring there is a strategy to safely withdraw all American service troops and civilians currently left in Afghanistan," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) stated Friday.

The US made a big blunder by letting the Afghan government takeover

On July 1, the United States effectively concluded its military activities in Afghanistan by handing over the massive Bagram Air Base to the Afghan government, which had long functioned as a staging base for US operations in the nation. Biden has defended his decision to leave Afghanistan, claiming that the US did not go to Afghanistan to establish a nation and that staying would have meant US forces suffering lives.

While the Afghan government in Kabul is on the verge of collapse, the Taliban are stealing American weapons from the Afghan troops and flaunting them around the nation. America's argument for leaving Afghanistan so quickly is even weaker than its justification for leaving Vietnam. In contrast to the 58,220 Americans who died in Vietnam, just 2,448 US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan during 20 years.

Furthermore, since the United States formally terminated its combat operations on January 1, 2015, it has only incurred 99 fatalities, including non-hostile situations. Over 28,000 Afghan police officers and troops have been killed in the same period.

None of this is meant to diminish the US commitment of blood and wealth in Afghanistan or to imply that American forces should remain in the country permanently. Ending America's longest war, on the other hand, is a noble objective. However, Biden's strategy includes acknowledging that a terrorist militia has destroyed the world's most powerful force and then turning over Afghanistan to that militia, according to Channel News Asia.

President Biden's exit from Afghanistan on Friday was denounced by Michael Waltz, the first Green Beret elected to Congress, who said the country's fast fall into chaos made a mockery of his reputation as a foreign policy expert. Instead, the Republican said that it proved Biden's susceptibility for making blunders abroad.

During last year's election, Biden's campaign emphasized his foreign policy credentials. He served as head or ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 12 years before becoming president, and as vice president, he took on the position of last-in-the-room counselor to President Barack Obama on foreign matters. However, there is a long list of errors that opponents have pounced on, as per Daily Mail.