Back in 2003, one of the most amusing things to watch on the news was Baghdad Bob (real name: Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf).  He was the press spokesman for Saddam Hussein's administration during the 2003 Iraq invasion.  Even as American tanks were rolling into Baghdad behind him, al-Sahhaf was earnestly insisting that the Americans were on the verge of defeat (e.g., committing suicide "by the hundreds") and that Hussein and his troops would be triumphant.  Now, in the form of secretary of state Antony Blinken, we have our own Baghdad Bob.

The entire notion of Baghdad Bob is less funny when Blinken is speaking about mission success even as the Taliban invades Kabul, aided by all the matériel the Americans abandoned; the embassy is evacuated; the airport is a scene of chaos and fear; tens of thousands of refugees are on the move; Afghan troops are being slaughtered; and Afghan girls and women relegated to rape and sex slavery.

And no, that's not exaggeration or literary license on my part.  Despite the helicopter evacuation of the American embassy, Blinken insisted that what's happening is nothing like America's departure from Saigon in 1975:

Antony Blinken insisted Sunday the scene in Afghanistan is not comparable to the fall of Saigon as he diverted blame for the Taliban take over on Trump, Republicans and Afghan security forces. 

The Secretary of State said the images emerging from Afghanistan, including personnel being airlifted out of the embassy in Kabul, is 'standard operating procedure'.

'This is being done in a very deliberate way. It's being done in an orderly way. And it's being done with American forces there to make sure we can do it in a safe way,' he said in an interview with ABC News' This Week on Sunday morning.

The above was not Blinken's Baghdad Bob moment.  Instead, that was his Chip Diller (Kevin Bacon) moment from Animal House:

The Baghdad Bob moment came when Blinken assured the world that (his words) the American "mission has been successful."  According to him, that's because bin Laden is dead and al-Qaeda has been diminished:

The State Department head listed a series of wins for the U.S. in Afghanistan, including 'dealing with the people who attacked on 9/11' and bringing 'Bin Laden to justice' as proof the situation is different from Saigon.

'That mission has been successful,' he said. 'Al-Qaeda, the group that attacked us, has been vastly diminished. Its capacity to attack us again from Afghanistan has been — right now, does not exist.'

Bin Laden was a spent force when America caught up with him.  As for al-Qaeda, the fact that Iran, Hezb'allah, and the Taliban are all ascending, not descending, powers says our government frittered away our American blood and gold for nothing.  So no, the mission was not a success. It was a terrible, terrible failure.

I'm not the only one making the point that Blinken is lying or deluded:

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— il Donaldo Trumpo (@ilSharko) August 14, 2021

Donald Trump has called upon Biden to resign:

Biden won't, of course.  The Democrat script is already written.  It's Trump's fault; it's the Afghan military's fault; it's everybody else's fault.

Certainly, there's enough blame to go around.  And yes, Trump did talk about withdrawal — but who here thinks Trump would have been stupid enough to pull out in such a way that the Taliban would control massive American weaponry and be in a position to put American lives at risk?

What we're seeing here is grotesque American incompetence creating mass human disaster — and the clowns in charge in D.C. are locked into a fantasy world.  Although I guess we shouldn't be surprised.  If your political party thinks men are women and vice versa, borders are unnecessary, coddling criminals prevents crime, government can spend its way out of inflation, and that a military is at its strongest when it celebrates transgenderism and racism, why shouldn't it characterize an ignominious defeat as a victory?

As America falls closer and closer to rock bottom, all we can do is hope that we have the resiliency left to bounce.  Otherwise, we're as doomed as Afghanistan or Venezuela.

Image: Antony Blinken.  YouTube screengrab.

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