Under no circumstances is one supposed to feel sorry for the United States president. It is very acceptable, however, to acknowledge that the president faced a “no-win” situation. Once an army spends twenty years occupying a central Asian country known for its extremism, keeping it stable, and then announces it is getting out, it is going to be extremely messy and John Bolton understands this because he understands war. He is always looking for a way to get into one.

But on CNN today, Bolton laid blame right on Donald Trump’s high heeled feet: From Mediaite

Bolton said he believed President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump “actually see the exactly same way” insofar as they both wanted “to get out” of Afghanistan. “Now there’s finger pointing, Biden saying we’re stuck with the Trump deal, Trump saying well, they could have done it differently,” Bolton said.

“Look, the basic mistake that’s playing out here is that Trump negotiated this deal only with the Taliban,” he added. “There are a lot of mistakes in the deal itself. But the fundamental problem of dealing with this terr*rist organization is that the Trump negotiators delegitimized the Afghan government. The government we set up. The government with which all the many flaws had at least some democratic legitimacy, of which Taliban had none.”

“By de-recognizing the government in effect, we shattered the morale of the Afghan army,” Bolton said in Friday’s interview. “The army is saying well, if the Americans won’t even protect that government, why are we going to end up protecting it? That’s why honestly, nobody should have been surprised that the army collapsed so quickly when Biden announced the final withdrawal.”

Well, we can think of one reason to protect it, to have an actual government that isn’t the Taliban. But that’s evidently beside the point. Apparently, the Afghans never did have any intention of defending their own country. The fact that Trump didn’t even include the real Afghan government in his “deal” sort of says it all. There is plenty of blame to go around. It is never easy, but the way the Right is calling for Biden’s impeachment is just absurd as… usual.

John Bolton, former Trump national security adviser: “The basic mistake that's playing out here is that Trump negotiated this deal only with the Taliban. There are a lot of mistakes in the deal itself. … The Trump negotiators delegitimized the Afghan government.” pic.twitter.com/6tLMBE60HP

— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) August 27, 2021

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[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak