Feehery: Afghanistan is Biden’s Katrina

“Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job.”  So said George W. Bush to Michael Brown, as the nation watched America devolve into 3rd country status as New Orleans fell apart in the face of Hurricane Katrina.

George Bush wasn’t completely to blame for that fiasco. The corrupt mayor of New Orleans, the incompetent governor of Louisiana and years of neglect of basic infrastructure, plus an unprecedented weather event all conspired to make a bad situation much worse. But W. got the blame and that disaster soured the country on the rest of the Bush agenda. 

Polls show that right after Katrina, the American people started losing faith in the Iraq War, Republican leadership in the Congress and the rest of the president’s agenda. When the voters turn on you for something, they turn on you for everything.

So it will be for Joe Biden.

Biden is not completely to blame for losing Afghanistan. We shouldn’t have been there for two decades to begin with. As much as America’s public policy idealists wanted it to be so, Afghanistan was never going to be a paragon on democratic virtue. We fought a war against a committed enemy when we had little skin in the game and our partners in the fight were not only thoroughly corrupt but playing both sides.  This was a bipartisan failure that not only indicted the civilian leadership, but the intelligence community and the top military brass.

But Biden’s role in this fiasco will leave a mark on his reputation and the credibility of his entire administration. The photo of him sitting alone in a briefing room at Camp David brought back memories of Bush looking down on the devastated New Orleans from Air Force One. The fact that the president went back on vacation after giving a national address as thousands of Americans flee Kabul shows either his lack of concern or his lack of energy. 

And it was the president’s direct decisions, made by him alone, that led to the quick downfall of the Afghan government. He didn’t have to put the final straw on the camel’s back, but he did, and for that he gets the blame. 

Most Americans, polls show, want to get out of Afghanistan and have for years. But they didn’t want it to happen the way President Biden made it happen. They didn’t want America humiliated. They don’t want innocent people slaughtered. They don’t want our international prestige irreparably harmed. 

How will this manifest itself domestically?

Well, first, the president won’t get much bully from his pulpit anymore. Why should the voters follow a weak leader who couldn’t get Afghanistan right? 

He will try to marshal the elites to gain compliance on things like vaccines passports and mask mandates. Are these the same elites who blundered us into two decades of wasted blood and treasure in the plains of Afghanistan? Thanks, but no thanks.

He will try to make the case that more government spending to be spent on more government, to the tune of $5 trillion, is what we need after wasting at least a trillion dollars to rebuild the Afghan middle class.  Can we afford to waste any more taxpayer money?

He will try to blame Republicans at the end of the fiscal year for refusing to increase the debt limit, just like he tried to blame Donald Trump for his decision to abandon the Afghans. That’s like blaming the bartender for serving you all the drinks that you now have to pay for. 

After Katrina, the last years of the Bush administration were brutal for him and for the Republican Party.  Republicans lost the Congress and Bush left office with the lowest approval ratings of any president in history. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden finished with ratings lower than Bush. I hope that doesn’t happen because I want America to succeed, but the trend lines don’t look good.  

Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at www.thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) when he was majority whip and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).