Bush, Barney, Biden

After the two bombings in Kabul that killed over 100 people, including 13 Americans, Republicans started calling for President Joe Biden to resign. They didn’t even wait until the next day.

Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, tweeted a rhetorical question and answered it herself in case nobody else would. She tweeted, “Should Biden step down or be removed for his handling of Afghanistan? Yes.” Funny that she didn’t call for Trump’s resignation after he bailed on our Kurdish allies in Syria and allowed Russia and Turkey to slaughter them by the hundreds. Does Nikki have an opinion on the over 130,000 Kurds who had to flee their homes from Trump’s betrayal?

Missouri Senator, Josh Hawley, who gave a waving fist bump to Trump’s terrorists gathering outside the United States Capitol, tweeted, “It is now clear beyond all doubt that he has neither the capacity nor the will to lead. He must resign.”

Tennessee senator, Marsha Blackburn, said, “It’s time for accountability, starting with those whose failed planning allowed these attacks to occur. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, and Mark Milley should all resign or face impeachment and removal from office.” Accountability? When a Republican is in the White House, accountability is like a black Barbie doll in Arizona. Nobody’s going to buy it (I stole that joke from 30 Rock).

Did you notice the pattern where none of these Republicans used “President” when referring to Biden? On the day of a terrorist attack that cost lives, including 13 Americans, they can’t stop playing politics. Even the political cartoonists whose first response is typically a crying Uncle Sam or crying Lady Liberty, drew cartoons attacking Biden. Sure, a president should be held accountable, but we usually wait until at least the next day in this nation.

One of my conservative colleagues drew a horrible unimaginative cartoon of the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, and Lincoln Memorial. Next to those, he had the Biden Memorial which was a symbol of dead soldiers. Several years ago, I walked to the Lincoln Memorial with this very same cartoonist. While walking through the Vietnam Memorial, I should have pointed out that every name on it was for a dead soldier. So, yeah…we have those in Washington.

But here’s what he’s missing: Americans were killed in combat during each of those presidential terms. Over 750,000 died during Lincoln’s tenure. This same cartoonist is a huge fan of Ronald Reagan. He still thinks trickle-down worked. I’m sure he never called for Reagan’s resignation, and probably worked for his reelection, after 241 Americans were killed by a terrorists attack in Beirut in 1983.

This same guy never called for George W. Bush to resign, and probably worked for his reelection, after terrorists killed 2,977 people on his watch. I don’t remember any Republicans calling for his resignation, especially not the day of the attack.

Do you remember what happened after 9/11? The country rallied and everyone put American flag magnets on their cars. There were “support the troops” bumper stickers. People, and the president, said, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” If you asked for Bush’s resignation, or oh my god, asked for any accountability, or asked, “Do we really need to create laws to spy on Americans and suspend the U.S. Constitution?,” then you would be accused of being against us. George Bush was given a blank check by Congress.

What did we do after 9/11? We created a brand new federal department and cabinet position. We created the Patriot Act which Republican’s didn’t hate until we elected Obama (How dare he use that law we created!) We started torturing. We detained prisoners in military jails off American soil so they wouldn’t have any rights. We even invaded the wrong country. During the build-up to that invasion, we in the media were told we weren’t supposed to ask “why.” I almost got fired from my newspaper job at the time. It’s really difficult to be a political cartoonist when you’re prohibited from questioning authority and that’s exactly what happened to me.

Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney didn’t even wait until September 12 to start creating connections to Iraq so they could invade that country and give no-bid contracts to their buddies. After Beirut, Ronald Reagan invaded the wrong country too, sending troops to kill Cubans in Grenada TWO days after the Beirut bombing. Invading Grenada got people’s minds off the 241 Americans killed by Reagan’s ineptness, and made them feel all warm and squishy inside even though they didn’t know where Grenada was. Maybe Biden should do the same thing? Is there another Caribbean island that has it coming? Maybe do Grenada again since it’s been about 40 years.

I am just a cartoonist which means I suck at math. Math is NOT my area of expertise. I count on fingers and toes when I’m adding a tip. But, despite my suckiness at math, I’m pretty sure that 2,977 and even 241 are greater numbers than 13.

One American killed on Biden’s watch, or any president’s watch, is too many. But you’re demanding a resignation from 13 deaths while you rallied the troops after much larger attacks? I’m starting to think this might be partisan. Maybe? Hmm? Did you know George W. Bush was even warned of an impending attack by al Qaida? Yeah, he knew and still, nobody asked for his resignation. It was only until a few years after he invaded the wrong country that people started to notice that he wasn’t a very good president. OK, a lot of us knew sooner than that, but the general population was in favor of invading the wrong country and even elected the guy. It wasn’t until the middle of his second term that the rest of the nation was done with Bush. He didn’t even go to the GOP convention in 2008 because the Republicans didn’t want to remind people Bush was a Republican. It took the god-awful horrifying presidency (sic) of Donald Trump for people to look at Bush in a positive light again. The best thing about George W. Bush is that he’s not Donald Trump.

Republicans are even calling for President Biden’s impeachment. But the thing about impeachment is that a law needs to be broken. You know, “high crimes and misdemeanors.” President Biden has not committed any crimes. And the people making these calls ignored the crimes Donald Trump committed that justified his TWO impeachments.

No Republican called for Donald Trump’s resignation after 26 people were killed in a mass shooting in Sutherland, Texas, or when 17 were killed in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida…or the 10 in a Santa Fe, Texas school shooting, or the 11 at the Pittsburgh synagogue, or the 12 in Thousand Oaks, California, or the 12 in Virginia Beach, or the 22 by a Trump supporter at a Walmart in El Paso. Not one Republican called for Trump’s resignation after hundreds of thousands died from the coronavirus after he said it would “someday magically disappear” or after he admitted he downplayed it.

President Joe Biden is a good president. He had a bad day. This attack still would have happened no matter who was in the White House…especially after Donald Trump negotiated this withdrawal with the Taliban. The attack on the U.S. Capitol only happened because Donald Trump was president (sic).

After supporting, enabling, and refusing to hold Donald Trump and his terrorists accountable after January 6, 2021, and are now calling for President Biden’s resignation after a terrorist attack, are hypocrites. You can’t call for a resignation after a terrorist attack when you’re a terrorist sympathizer.

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