Rep. Brian Mast: Biden’s ‘Incompetence’ on Afghanistan is ‘Unforgivable’

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) rebuked President Joe Biden for “assigning blame to everyone but himself,” during his Monday address on the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

“President Biden has abandoned the Afghan men and women who risked their lives for our war, and rather than execute any sort of plan that protects our interests and our allies, he’s spending all of his time assigning blame to everyone but himself,” Mast said in a statement.

The congressman was referring to Biden’s attempt to shift responsibility to former President Donald Trump and to Afghan forces for his failed withdrawal policy.

“American troops cannot – and should not – be fighting in a war—and dying in a war—that the Afghans are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden said, before complaining that the Taliban was already in a stronger position militarily thanks to Trump.

Mast said Biden’s failure in Afghanistan will result in “humanitarian disaster,” and expressed fear for Afghan allies he served with during his time in the military.

Mast continued:

When my legs were blown off, I was moving across the battlefield in Kandahar, Afghanistan narrowing in on a high-value target. As a bomb tech, it was my job to clear the way for the rest of our team, finding and disposing of improvised explosive devices. One member of our team was an Afghan interpreter who I’ll call Tom.

Tom always had a helmet that was too big, and the weight of his night vision goggles would make it wobble like a bobblehead on a dashboard. Once, he was on a mission and his tennis shoes got stuck in the mud, so he finished the mission barefoot. He had a young son and daughter. He fought alongside us, was a friend to America, and now, I have no idea where he or his family is.

Mast said because of Biden’s failure, there is a “very real possibility” that the next time he turns on the news, he will be “forced to watch Tom beheaded.”

“President Biden’s incompetence and focus on the optics in the face of this humanitarian disaster is completely unforgivable,” he concluded. 

Biden finally addressed the nation Monday about the fall of Afghanistan after remaining mostly quiet over the weekend and continuing his summer vacation at Camp David. He received condemnation from both sides of the political aisle for his public silence.