One of the great privileges of my time serving in the U.S. Air Force was the assumption of command of the 1st Air and Space Test Squadron at Vandenberg AFB California in 2006. While there are many higher and strategically consequential command positions, most military leaders will agree that this level of unit command is the most gratifying, as you have the personal and direct responsibility and authority over the lives of those men and women entrusted to your leadership. And in that role came many responsibilities, one of which was to be prepared to notify next of kin on the loss of their loved one. I can’t remember all the details of my training, but the gravity of the training was palpable. Most training, in most organizations, is something we all want to get through to “check the box.” Not this. Even though my memory is now faded, I remember how earnestly I soaked in everything they told me–every procedure, every step. This was a potential task that must be done perfectly–nothing less was acceptable. And in a strange way, if someone in my command were to die, I wanted to be the one to take the news to the family. I wanted to be a part of making what would be a horrible day just a little bit better than it otherwise would have been. By God’s grace, I was not called to that task, even though several of my fellow squadron commanders were.

In the initial brief by President Biden we were not given the names of those fallen, as this military process of notification of next-of-kin was not yet complete.* If I would have been assigned the task, what would I say to the widows and parents of these brave young men? The training I received would have ensured I did not try to explain the reasons why their sons and husbands died, or why a policy that created the dangerous situation would have been arrived at. I would have just mourned with them. But inwardly, as now, my heart would have been crushed. Afghanistan was and is always dangerous, but this didn’t have to happen. As you read this post, just imagine the emptiness that is in those homes. Just imagine the surviving marines that at some base somewhere are boxing up the belongings and pictures of those young marines’ desk or station. What are they thinking? They are at least in part thinking about what should have been, what could have been, with a more effective leader.

Yes, President Biden, the buck does stop with you and you alone. The President’s news conference was both humiliating to every American (or should have been) and also pathetic. Mr. Biden’s attempt to shift this back to Donald Trump is particularly sad:

I bear responsibility for fundamentally all that’s happened of late. Here’s the deal. You know – I wish you’d one day say these things – you know as well as I do that the former president made a deal with the Taliban that he would get all American forces out of Afghanistan by May 1. In return the commitment was made – and that was a year before – in return he was given the commitment that the Taliban would continue to attack others but would not attack any American forces. Remember that? I’m being serious. I’m asking you a question.

This is sad, of course, because in no way was he restricted from continuing to follow the bad policy decisions of Donald Trump (and this deal with the Taliban by the Trump Administration was bad).** How many good Trump policies did Mr. Biden jettison in the first days of his presidency? He could have walked away from this. And everyone in the country knows he owns this, which is why his attempts to blame Donald Trump were so pathetic. And this is very sad because Joe Biden is our president, for over three more years absent something worse happening. I have no confidence in his decision-making or his personal integrity to handle any tough issue, and this humiliating defeat for the U.S. (and the whole western alliance) is only going to embolden other actors who hate our values. When your policies are condemned by your friends and cheered by your enemies, you should know something isn’t quite right.***

We are commanded to pray for kings and all who are in authority, so how much the more do we do this right now? Even when we are very angry at his failures? I will continue to pray for God’s mercy to Joe Biden and for Him to reveal His wisdom to President Biden and give him an obedient heart. I do this not out of any particular hope that God will suddenly make Joe Biden into something he has manifestly not demonstrated in years of public life, but rather, as we see in the imprecatory Psalms, this is my (and your) pathway to surrender to God what we cannot control. When I pray for Mr. Biden I have just a little bit less need to be angry at him, as I have turned that over to God.

This is a troubling time to be alive on many dimensions, but this is our time. And God is on His throne, so yes we will weep for the widows, our country and the world. And then we must choose to rejoice.

* At least some of those brave men’s family have now been notified as of late yesterday, and you can read about those heroes here.

** And while Mr. Biden has no credibility in blaming Mr. Trump for his failures, let’s not think that Mr. Trump would have done a lot better. He was still arguing for a quicker withdrawal in the spring of this year. Yes I think that a Trump team would have executed this better (how could he have done worse?), but this was still a failed policy decision.

*** Especially when you acted against the recommendations of your military and diplomatic advisors. It’s true, if reports are correct, that they agreed in the end, as Mr. Biden had made up his mind. Yet their failure to make this a hill worth dying on is shame to them.

EDIT: Should change to weep for the spouses. All the names are released and two of the marines were females, and one at least was married. Females in combat positions is a discussion for another day, but makes this all the more tragic.