Notable Quotes

“Say What?!”

How does something like Kabul happen? It happens when you are no longer a serious country – when you cannot even deal with a pandemic and you think this nitwit waving a flag is a great idea. This is not a public that will engage in reasoned debate about the future of Afghanistan.

– Tweet by Tom Nichols, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and at the Harvard Extension School and writer for USA Today and The Atlantic, accompanied by a photo of Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) waving an American flag at the 2021 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in an effort to blame her and likeminded people for President Biden’s folly

I think it’s interesting that this side, this political party, the Democrats, who embrace getting abortion on demand, are accusing us of embracing death when we’re just allowing people to make personal choices and have personal responsibility over when they want to assemble, when they want to gather, and spend time outdoors enjoying their way of life.

- Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) responding to left-wing criticism for attending the 2021 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally Happy Monday, or as Joe Biden calls it … and you thought Jimmy Carter [stinks].

– Greg Gutfeld, Fox News

So the Taliban sets its sights on Kabul, which is good news for [Chicago Mayor] Lori Lightfoot. Her city no longer is the most dangerous one on the planet.

- Ibid.

But what were our priorities while this war went on for decades? For us, at home, it was bad cops, bad tweets, bad combustible engines, bad pronouns. Yes, the CDC reminds us it’s pregnant people instead of moms. I’m so glad we won that battle.

- Ibid.

As we watched terrorists waltz into power, what were we doing? Well, we obsessed over white supremacists on January 6 with our commander-in-chief yelling, “Never mind the Bin Laden look-alike with the rocket launcher. It’s this white guy wearing face paint and a Viking hat that we got to eliminate!”

– Ibid.

Freedom and democracy are not doing well when #Twitter continues to ban #Trump’s account but relays the #Taliban spokesperson’s without any second thoughts.

- Tweet by French politician Jerome Riviere

When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001.

- President Biden’s initial reaction to the fall of Kabul, in a written statement on Saturday

I wouldn’t have let my 10-year-old son get away from this kind of pathetic blameshifting. He should be less focused on trying to blame this on someone else than to solving the problem of making sure that we protect and defend American security. Chris, it’s worth noting this did not happen on our watch. We reduced our forces significantly and the Taliban didn’t advance on capitals all across Afghanistan.

– Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in an interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace, responding to President Biden blaming Trump for Afghanistan

We had a bad deal we inherited — the JCPOA [Iran nuclear deal]; we got out of it. We secured America from the risk from Iran. We inherited a horrible deal in Syria where ISIS controlled real estate the size of Great Britain. We crushed them. Every president confronts challenges. This president confronted a challenge in Afghanistan. He has utterly failed to protect the American people from this challenge.

- Ibid.

This is in the context of a Biden administration that has basically abandoned the global stage in favor of climate change. They’ve been focused on critical race theory while the embassy is at risk. That didn’t happen during our four years.

- Ibid.

I’m not an opinion host. I give my point of view.

- CNN host Don Lemon We are not withdrawing – we are staying, the embassy is staying, our programs are staying.… If there is a significant deterioration in security … I don’t think it’s going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday. So I wouldn’t equate the departure of our forces in July, August or sometime in September with some type of immediate deterioration of the situation.

- Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, one month ago, in a statement which has not held up very well, considering that the Taliban took over Afghanistan literally from Friday to Monday last weekend

There is going to be no circumstance where you see people lifted off the roof of an embassy… The likelihood that you’re going to see the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.

– President Joe Biden last month

The Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight and defend their country.

- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, last month

I think it will be a good lesson for us, for other Ukrainian couples, and couples abroad not to repeat what we have done.

-Viktoria Pustovitova, of Ukraine, who spent 123 days handcuffed to Alexandr Kudlay as an experiment and documented their time together

MORE QUOTES

It’s pretty clear this probably would have been just as bad, if not worse, under what Trump wanted to do.

- NBC anchor Chuck Todd talking about the Afghanistan debacle

Whatever happened to “America is back”? People are bewildered that after two decades of this big, high-tech power intervening, they are withdrawing and effectively handing the country back to the people we went in to defeat.

- Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Defense Committee in the British Parliament

This is the irony. How can you say America is back when we’re being defeated by an insurgency armed with no more than [rocket-propelled grenades], land mines and AK-47s?

- Ibid.

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

- Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker under Presidents Bush and Obama, talking about President Biden

I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?

- Kabul’s female former Mayor Zarifa Ghafari in a phone interview after the Taliban took over Kabul The president is to be commended for the clarity of purpose of his statement on Afghanistan and the actions he has taken…. Once again, I want to acknowledge the clarity of purpose of President Biden’s statement and the wisdom of his actions.

- From Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s statement about President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan

The biggest thing that became clear was Bibi was on top of everything, he knew everything. He called me 30 times, asking: “What about young people…. What are you doing about the South African variant?” I’m sure he was doing it for his people, but I’m also sure he was thinking, “It could help me politically.”

- Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in an interview with the Financial Times

My secret is to treat everybody right. And love everybody. Don’t hate nobody.

- Marie Robinson of Georgia, who has 35 grandchildren, 101 great-grandchildren and 18 great-great-grandchildren, in a TV interview upon her 100th birthday

The one thing I would like to say to the young people, to raise their children right. Because you know that the young people, they don’t seem to understand. But us old people need to teach them what’s right. Raise them right, tell them how to love one another. And just keep on trusting in the L-rd and He will make a way for you.

- Ibid.