Former Ambassador Ryan Crocker has worked for both the Bush and Obama administration, but he tends not to get that partisan. That’s why this is a startling quote about Joe Biden.

“I’m left with some grave questions in my mind about his ability to lead our nation as commander-in-chief,” Crocker said. “To have read this so wrong – or, even worse, to have understood what was likely to happen and not care.”

Crocker isn’t carrying water for Republicans. He’s got plenty of harsh things to say about President Trump, but, like a lot of people who were invested in the situation, he’s angry at Biden. 

“We’re going to pay for that for a long time to come, and that’s why it is insane – just idiotic – to think that we can tell the Taliban that if they don’t stop taking over territory and play nice, the international community will withhold recognition and support,” he said. “The Taliban really doesn’t care, because they’ve got something far more valuable.”

Team Biden is betting that most Americans don’t care. And they’re right in the general sense. The majority of the public supported a withdrawal, but they weren’t supportive of a rout. And that’s what this is. The scenes coming out of Afghanistan make America look weak.

Given a week, the Bidenites assume that they’ll be able to sweep it under the rug, bury it under the latest COVID news, and mask and vaccine identity politics, but they’ve also made some vocal enemies especially out of the sorts of establishment people they had swung to their side during the election. I suspect that there is going to be a price to pay for that, just as there was for Obama after Syria. The price may not be obvious in the big picture, but it will be one more worm in Biden’s apple.