Our current president frankly never made much of an impression on me before. I certainly voted for him (and Harris) in 2020, because the other option pretty clearly appeared to be fascism. But when we think of Biden, there doesn't seem to be much in his long career that jumps out in a positive way. On the bright side, I've read that he did a good job (as Vice President) of helping to get the 2009 Stimulus passed in Congress and then supervising how those relief funds were spent. Just off the top of my head, however, I couldn't really think of anything else that stands out as one of his genuinely constructive accomplishments. Except maybe that gay marriage thing.
But that assessment changed this week, in a major way, and I am talking, of course, about the withdrawal from Afghanistan. I have, in fact, rarely been as impressed by another politician as I have been impressed with Biden over the last few days. What we're seeing is so uncommon, and we witness it so rarely, that it's hard to even realize what we're experiencing; but, Joe Biden is demonstrating actual political courage. He's doing the right thing, and he's sticking with it, despite the disapproval from his military advisors, the hysterically over-the-top and astonishingly one-sided opposition from almost every corner of what appears to be - across the board - a shamelessly pro-war news media, and the inevitable drop in support (however temporary) he is sure to suffer as a result of the relentlessly propagandistic attacks he is now experiencing from all sides. His determination to get us out of our endless war despite all these headwinds is downright noble. And he deserves some well-earned praise for his actions.
The normal course of action for a politician in his (or in a similar) position would be to lie to the public, to claim that there's still a chance of success in Afghanistan, to distort or manipulate the true picture of what's going on there, and/or to fall for the manipulations of the infamous "military industrial complex" and to go along with some form of whatever they want. But to actually address the American public honestly, to tell us that it's over and we have to get out of there, and to stick to that decision come hell or high water, as Biden is doing, is absolutely remarkable. Soak it in, because we may not see this kind of thing again for another generation or two.
The news media, by contrast, is in epic face-plant mode. Respected journals that should know better have fallen all over themselves to rush to a negative judgement as fast as they possibly can (and long before we can actually have any clear idea of how the dust will finally settle once we're out of Afghanistan). Astonishingly, some editorial boards still - STILL! - suggest that after 20 years of a largely failed effort to prop up a western-style democracy in a far-flung country with its own history and culture (about which we understand next to nothing), we should just continue keeping thousands of soldiers there - more or less indefinitely.
Biden knows these misguided judgements are wrong. He knows that it's long past time to get us out of that endless war. And he's getting it done despite all of the insults and condemnations getting thrown his way. That sort of behavior is what an actual profile in courage looks like.