May You Choke On Your Cake

 I am currently still stuck in hospital with Covid Pneumonia. I'm fine, really, but stuck until my lungs clear up a bit more. Anyway, that means way more TV channel surfing than I am accustomed to, because I usually know exactly where to go to find something distracting to watch.

All of which is to say that I've scrolled through Fox News a few times. 

The reaction to what seems to obviously the right choice in Afghanistan is falling into as predictable a pattern as the collapse of the Afghan proxy forces. "Sensible foreign policy heads" are decrying...something...credibility...<waves hands>. These are the people invested in America's ability to create a nation in Afghanistan where none exists. They were given my eldest son's entire lifetime to solve this, failed and now want to blame Biden. Fuck'em, but I do think they legitimately care that things on the ground in Afghanistan are going to get worse for many, many Afghans,

Fox, on the other hand, is giddy. All their efforts to smear Biden - Hunter's laptop, Tara Reade, dementia, Major's nipping people, his return trips to Delaware - have fallen flat because they are all just transparently stupid. Afghanistan, on the other hand, is "bad." And what's more, it's undeniably real, unlike the idea that requiring vaccinations is the equivalent of Nazism.  

First, of course, they have to erase that this withdrawal was largely Trump's plan. In fact, the GOP had to scrub a web page touting Trump's role in creating the current circumstances. (People have pointed out that we "only" had 2500 troops there. But that was largely because we were negotiating our withdrawal anyway. If we wanted to stay, it would have required more troops.)

So rather than get into the merits of whether it was right to withdraw (it was) and therefore get snared by the fact that withdrawing from Afghanistan is broadly popular, Fox and the GOP are going to try and "have their cake and eat it to" by blaming Biden for the precipitate collapse of the Afghan government AND his efforts to rescue Afghans who helped us over the last two decades. Those of us who are sadly realistic about this situation also realize we can't abandon our friends.

That means immigration of large numbers of Afghans. 

That weird moaning noise you hear is Stephen Miller getting an erection at the thought of all the Islamophobic bile he gets to unleash. 

It is true that vetting the influx of Afghan refugees is important. It is also true that we must stand with them in their hour of need. The GOP and Fox get to attack Biden both for leaving (also Trump's idea, but shhh) and for abandoning our allies and for trying to save as many of our allies as we can.

I think Biden's Afghan plan and speech will go over better than the "Blob" realizes. I think the people at Fox "get" that. But they can always hate on immigrants and Muslims. That's evergreen territory for them.