In what has to be the most brainless remark uttered by a U.S. president, Joe Biden said during a White House briefing, "What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al-Qaida gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, as well as getting Osama bin Laden. And we did."
The Pentagon immediately contradicted the president, saying al-Qaida still exists in Afghanistan. As we learned with the suicide attack at the Kabul airport, the terrorist group ISIS-K exists as well.
As Biden spoke, the Taliban already had freed thousands of al-Qaida and ISIS fighters in jailbreaks. They quickly seized weapons, drones, and aircraft that had been paid for by the U.S. and left behind by the defeated Afghan army.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the FBI for his alleged role in the January 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul, had already returned triumphantly to the country.
The Taliban placed him and his network in charge of security in Kabul.
Now, with CIA assets in Afghanistan virtually gone and an entire country capable of paying millions to leading scientists, the terrorists will be able to carry out bin Laden’s master plan — wipe out the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Going back to 1998, bin Laden declared that acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, was his Islamic duty as part of his pursuit of jihad. Over the course of decades, bin Laden dispatched his lieutenants to attempt to purchase or develop nuclear and biochemical WMD to inflict mass casualties on the United States.
In fact, for my book 'The Secrets of the FBI," Dr. Vahid Majidi, an assistant FBI director who was the chief of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, told me that when American forces invaded Afghanistan after 9/11, they found that al-Qaida was already at work on what Majidi called a "nascent" weapons of mass destruction effort involving chemical and biological weapons.
Biological weapons such as anthrax, botulism, smallpox, plague, and ricin toxin alone could wipe out millions of Americans.
Ricin kills cells by inhibiting protein synthesis.
Within several days, the liver, spleen, and kidneys of a person who inhales or ingests ricin stop working, resulting in death.
Anthrax spores reach deep into the lungs when inhaled.
They are then able to replicate in blood, travel to the lymph nodes, and produce toxins which lead to death.
"The notion of probability of a WMD attack being low or high is a moot point because we know the probability is 100 percent," Majidi told me.
"There is going to be an attack using chemical, biological, or radiological material," Dr. Majidi explained.
Blind to the threat he created by withdrawing from Afghanistan and displaying weakness to our enemies and allies, Joe Biden utters mindless phrases about ending the endless war and stopping nation building.
These slogans have nothing to do with the reason we should have remained in Afghanistan — to protect our own safety.
While no American wants to see a single U.S. soldier killed, the fact is we have 1.4 million service members who volunteer to serve. What are they there for except to protect us from another devastating terrorist attack?
Since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, 2,448 American service members have been killed. Almost the same number of police officers — 2,117 —have lost their lives in the line of duty over the same time period.
Yet no one has called for withdrawing our police officers because they are being killed. Police officers, like soldiers, FBI agents, and Secret Service agents, sign up to defend us regardless of the risks.
Biden’s shocking disregard for our safety is exceeded only by his disastrous plan to withdraw American forces before Sept. 11 so he can glorify himself with a speech declaring that he ended the war.
From placing an artificial deadline on the withdrawal of American forces; to evacuating American soldiers prematurely before U.S. citizens and Afghans who helped us are flown out; to undercutting the Afghan army by withdrawing air and intelligence support, leading to its surrender; to closing the secure Bagram Air Force Base and allowing terrorist poisoners there to escape; to allowing the Taliban to scoop up American arms, helicopters, and drones, Biden — along with his military leaders constricted by his timeline and strictures calculated to enhance his own narcissistic image—could not have made worse decisions.
Biden’s claim that he will keep America safe with an over-the-horizon capability is pure fiction. Unless the CIA is capable of picking up threats by developing human assets on the ground in Afghanistan, all the weapons in the world will not pinpoint suitable targets.
Unlike in the rest of the world, the CIA will not be able to do that safely with so-called illegals or CIA officers under diplomatic cover in a country controlled by ruthless terrorists.
Leon Panetta, President Obama’s defense secretary and CIA director, summed it up best: Interviewed on CNN, Panetta said the U.S. will probably have to return to Afghanistan to combat ISIS and al-Qaida, which he predicts will resurrect itself.
"I understand that we’re trying to get our troops out of there, but the bottom line is, we can leave a battlefield, but we can’t leave the war on terrorism, which still is a threat to our security," Panetta explained.
When it comes to condemning Biden’s recklessness, nothing in recent memory has so united Republicans, Democrats, and the mainstream media, underscoring the remark by Robert M. "Bob" Gates, Obama’s secretary of defense, Joe Biden has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."
Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the New York Times bestselling author of "The Secrets of the FBI" and "The CIA at War." Read Ron Kessler's Reports — More Here.