Let's Revisit The Götterdämmerung Strategy
The dificulty arises with scheduling. If for any reason the world doesn't end exactly when you expect it to, or even if you run your card up to its limit too soon, you'll be forced to make those extravagant payments after all. President Biden summed up the scheduling problem with his remark, “The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.” In other words, the collapse of Afghanistan had been programmed into the agenda, they were just figuring it would take place around the time the world would end and they didn't need to worry about it.
But this and the subsequent events of the past week gave me more insight into Biden's character. Look at his now well-quoted remarks on July 8:
Q Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?
THE PRESIDENT: No, it is not.
Q Why?
THE PRESIDENT: Because you — the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped — as well-equipped as any army in the world — and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable.
. . . The Taliban is not the south — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.
There's really no difference between his glibness on July 8 and his happy talk in his presentation at the White House yesterday:We’re going to do everything — everything that we can to provide safe evacuation for our Afghan allies, partners, and Afghans who might be targeted if — because of their association with the United States.
But let me be clear, any American who wants to come home, we will get you home.
But make no mistake: This evacuation mission is dangerous. It involves risks to our armed forces, and it is being conducted under difficult circumstances.
I cannot promise what the final outcome will be or what it will be — that it will be without risk of loss. But as Commander-in-Chief, I can assure you that I will mobilize every resource necessary.
What he's doing at this point isn't just hedging his bets, he's anticipating that things are definitely going to turn to poop, and he's programming in the excuse he'll use after August 31: hey, I never promised you it would work out, I just said we'd do all we could. And we flew out blah blah blah in an unprecedented blah blah blah. My heart goes out to the blah blah blah.The problem now is that his strategies have become predictable and pro forma. His situation reminds me of an insightful remark Jordan Peterson made some years ago that's stayed with me: he disagreed with the opinion we've often seen that corporate executives are narcissists and sociopaths. "They can't be," he more or less said. "Narcissists and sociopaths wear out their welcome."
I think this goes to what I;m beginning to recognize about Biden's character. He isn't senile. A senile person is disorganized. Biden is all too organized. His lies are deliberate, and his evasions are planned. However, he's wearing out his welcome. The dilemma is they actually can't use the 25th Amendment or force his resignation. Biden isn't senile, to start with, and he's stubborn, but notwithstanding Harris's utter unsuitability for the office, if she leaves the vice presidency, she also ceases to be the tiebreaking vote in the Senate, with the confirmation of a new vice president a fraught issue. This would completely unravel any remaining hopes for the 2021 agenda.
His current strategy appears to be to hunker down, kick the can down the road for a few more weeks with some happy talk, and hope something intervenes -- but that's effectively to hope the world ends in time for him to get out of making payments. I don't think this will work, but I don't see the end game yet.
