EDITORIAL: Biden dances to the Taliban’s tune

The president of the United States is supposed to be the leader of the free world. But President Joe Biden is now taking his directions from the Taliban.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced that it would not be extending its Aug. 31 deadline to pull American troops out of Afghanistan. There is no guarantee that all American citizens will have been evacuated by then, especially those who are outside Kabul.

Over the last few days, Americans have been horrified by accounts of the Taliban beating U.S. citizens. The Taliban and the chaos outside the airport prevented some U.S. citizens from reaching safety. The U.S. Embassy also sent conflicting messages about what U.S. citizens should do. Despite Mr. Biden’s assurances, even Democrats are openly acknowledging that if he insists on this timeline, people will be left behind.

“You’re not going to get everybody out,” said Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., as reported by ABC News. “You may get the vast majority of American citizens out.”

That is obviously unacceptable. Things look even worse for the Afghans who helped the United States during the war. The Taliban is already reportedly looking for and executing them. Now, it says it won’t allow any Afghans to leave the country. To the U.S.’s shame, Mr. Biden appears ready to condemn many of them to death.

On Tuesday, Fox News reported that the G7 nations had agreed to tell the Taliban that they would be staying past Aug. 31. But Biden didn’t go along. He’s working on the Taliban’s timeline, and the Taliban wouldn’t agree to allow U.S. troops to stay any longer.

This is a new low, even for the man who opposed the raid to take out Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Biden’s failures aren’t limited to a willingness to leave U.S. citizens and our Afghan allies in the hands of a murderous regime. Over the last 20 years, the U.S. spent tens of billions of dollars on weapons for the Afghan security forces. Much of that is now in the hands of the Taliban. That includes machine guns, Humvees and night vision goggles. Hopefully, the Taliban doesn’t have the logistical capacity to operate the Black Hawk helicopters it captured.

As we near the anniversary of 9/11, it’s likely that Mr. Biden has left the Taliban better armed and more powerful than the U.S. found them 20 years ago.

He’s shredded the U.S.’s credibility with our allies as well. They openly doubt our willingness to stand alongside them in the future.

The U.S. has the strongest military in the history of the world. But even our armed forces can be crippled by a weak, incompetent president. It’s obvious to the Taliban, our allies and our enemies that’s exactly what Mr. Biden is.