Probably for all US foreign policy, in fact.
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I was about to post that too.
Why the hell is Biden so keen on ramping up fossil fuel extraction and usage?
Yes, you read that correctly. One of the most senior figures in the Biden administration, the administration that promised climate was ‘everywhere’ in its policy, is declaring that . . . the US reserves the right to cajole Opec and Russia into flooding the world with more oil. We should not mince words: if this is the stance of the Biden administration then its decarbonisation agenda has been well and truly buried. According to no less an authority than the IEA, if we are to reach net zero by 2050, we need to end fossil fuel capacity expansion now.
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Petroligarchs and the fossil fuels lobbyists?
Wanting to appear “moderate”?
Quid pro quo deal-making?
Quickening the End of Days?
Some weird version of “crazy like a fox” bait-n-switch?
Hmmm… not quite a litany of petrocratic donors named here:
https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race/joe-biden/contributors?id=N00001669
ETA:
forgot the whole death cult religious angle
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Yeah to all that, plus The Empire being bipartisan.
I remember Obama saying, er, claiming, in an interview that a president is like the captain of an enormous ship, and that there’s no turning its course much in the short time one has in office.
So, why even try, I guess? Just another excuse, I suppose, but I can easily imagine Biden saying something similar.
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It’s funny, because for all the trouble it supposedly has turning to port, other captains seem to have no trouble slamming it hard to starboard.
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They manage to jibe and be tacky at the same time. 
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IMO, Afganistan was fucked up by W. and his neocon admin. They had no real goal in mind, no plans for nation-building, and wanted to do everything on cheap… and that was before they invaded Iraq and poured all the resources there, leaving everything in Afganistan half-assed.
Obama, Trump and now Biden bear some responsibility, but I don’t think any of them could have “fixed” things (and I’m really talking about Obama and Biden here; the only thing Trump could have done was to make everything worse), at least not without massive political support from the Congress and the American people, which wasn’t going to happen.
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Largely agree. This was a shitshow from the start, that could not be fixed. The only way to maintain was to remain, which was never an eternal solution. Whenever we left, it was going to turn into a horror show. That said, the people, and particularly the women, are going to be in a hellscape for the foreseeable future. I hate it, but don’t know how it could be fixed.
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Coupled with "we dont negotiate with terrorists " and the false dichotomy of “you’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists” and it meant negotiation with taliban was never an option in the early days.
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“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” -Biden
He’s GD right about that.
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It’s disheartening for sure, but we might be in need of un-radicalized servicemen at home before long.
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They had a goal in mind. They wanted to be able to say “You don’t change horses mid-stream.” They achieved their goal.
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Cross posted in good news.
Coupled with the reduction in child poverty from the tax credit- this is a big fucking deal. But poverty and hunger isn’t worthy of the 24 hour talking head treatment.
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“Congressional Democrats are preparing a series of hearings on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rising anger about the Biden administration’s handling of the end of the war, with the Taliban rapidly taking control and the US chaotically scrambling to evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghan allies.”
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there would be a hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee early next week, and the panel’s chairman Gregory Meeks said Tuesday he’s invited Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to testify.” -CNN
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20 years worth of the sunk cost fallacy is hard to let go of.
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Dems eating their own again?
I can’t imagine Republican congresscritters doing that to a Republican president.
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Makes sense to me, one of the few things that there’s some agreement on across the political and social spectra. A bitter end to an unpopular and costly war isn’t any better the longer it’s avoided.
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