An Open Letter to Congressman Owens Requesting the Removal of President Biden from Office

September 1, 2021

The Honorable Burgess Owens

1039 Longworth House Office Building 

Washington, DC 20515     

                                                                                                   

Dear Congressman Owens,

I had the solemn honor and profound privilege of attending the candlelight vigil on the steps of the Utah state capitol building this last Sunday night to honor the life and ultimate sacrifice paid by Utah’s own Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover.  Unless I am mistaken, I am fairly certain that I noticed you from a distance in attendance of this solemn vigil along with hundreds of other good people as well.  As a constituent that voted for you, I thank you for that, sir.  As the crowd spontaneously sang patriotic songs together and read the names of those killed in the recent homicide bombing in Kabul as we waited for SSGT Hoover’s family to arrive, I knew that as tragic as his and the other military members’ deaths are, they are not in vain.  I would be willing to bet that most Americans from all political perspectives appreciate and honor those sacrifices.

All of that said, I cannot help but think that those deaths and the deaths of 170 Afghan people were needless and preventable.  Further those deaths are a direct result of the feckless, irresponsible, and foolish policies of President Biden as he proceeded with unnecessary alacrity to be out of Afghanistan by 9/11/2021 as a matter of optics in order to garner favorable press coverage of a “historic ending” of the war.

Now good people from both sides of the argument can debate the necessity of finally pulling out our troops from Afghanistan after twenty years; however, the manner in which this expedited draw down has been executed almost surely invited this inevitable response from terrorists within Afghanistan.  Because of this, I don’t fault President Biden for pulling out, but rather I do condemn him for the utterly indefensible way in which he executed this withdrawal.

He removed all support from our Afghan allies, often with no notification whatsoever.  He surrendered Bagram air base outside the city of Kabul, which would have been far easier to defend against enemies.  He ignored accurate intelligence reports that indicated that the Taliban would likely capture strategic locations and cities with great swiftness.  He did not inform, let alone consult with our allies in Afghanistan regarding the accelerated withdrawal, and he left over 85 billion dollars of taxpayer’s aircraft, vehicles, drones, weaponry, and ancillary equipment for the Taliban to capture and use – likely against us or our allies in the future. 

To exacerbate matters, he has left Americans and Afghan allies behind and at the mercy of the terroristic Taliban regime, in sharp contradiction to his repeated promises to not do so.  He did this after providing the names of certain American and Afghan individuals to the Taliban to escort to the airport.  What he did was effectively provide a kill list to a group that is recognized as terroristic in nature throughout the world.  The ramifications and repercussions of this foolishly executed withdrawal will be felt and realized in the decades to come accordingly, I strongly suspect.

President Biden repeatedly has told us that the “adults are back” and in charge and as such he promised to reach out to our allies. He had excoriated President Trump for “going it alone” and promised to include allies in his decision-making. Unfortunately, he chose to do the opposite with a unilateral decision and an arbitrary pullout date, leaving our allies to effectively fend for themselves against the tender mercies of the Taliban and the other terrorist organizations they harbor. Our allies will most assuredly be very hesitant in joining or supporting future necessary American military endeavors when future threats are realized under this administration’s “leadership.”  

As a case in point, one of America’s oldest and most reliable allies, the United Kingdom, had its parliament soundly condemn President Biden specifically because of his actions regarding this travesty.

Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage, summed up Britain’s current demeanor towards our nation in an interview with Glenn Beck this last week.

Farage stated, "You know, I've spent 40 years working for American companies and businesses, being allies, politically, with Donald Trump and many friends of the Republican Party. There's nobody this side of the pond who is more pro-American, more pro-respectful relationship than I am," Farage told Glenn. "And it hurts me to say this, but for Biden to unconditionally withdraw from the military mission after 20 years, without any planning or any foresight as to how we get our nationals out in the case of a Taliban advance, and to do it without even consulting the British prime minister, and refusing to answer his phone call for almost 48 hours, sends a message to us. And the message is, we cannot trust America.

"Despite being our closest partner for over 100 years, we cannot trust America with this man in charge. And it's a sad realization, but it's true. And I think it's even further than the relationship with the UK and the USA. I think NATO, frankly, ceases to function. So, the damage that Biden has done to America's international reputation could not be greater," he added.

“And, of course, when you look at those photographs today, of Taliban soldiers now dressed in American military equipment with $85 billion worth of U.S. military hardware now in the hands of these people, with the giant lithium reserves that exist in Afghanistan now completely open to exploitation with Communist China, and warnings coming in the UK today that our terrorism threat is now going up directly as a result of what has happened in Afghanistan ... believe me, Glenn, this is on every level a disaster."

Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea are all paying attention to this disastrous debacle that need not have been.  China has already been saber-rattling towards Taiwan after observing President Biden’s latest foray in surrender realpolitik.  Indeed, in a recent editorial by The Global Times, a state-affiliated tabloid newspaper published by the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, The People’s Daily, stated, “The situation in Afghanistan suddenly saw a radical change after the country was abandoned by the US. And Washington just left despite the worsening situation in Kabul. Is this some kind of omen for Taiwan’s future fate?”

Our weakness as portrayed to the entirety of the world by President Biden, only emboldens despots, terrorists, and enemy regimes throughout the globe.  Indeed, the precursor to 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan occurred because President Clinton tucked tail and ran after the Blackhawk down incident in Mogadishu, Somalia.  This was noticed by none other than Osama bin Laden who mockingly called America “a paper tiger”.  The horrific attacks on 9/11 were a result of that.  This is the legacy that Biden is creating once again by failing to learn from our not-too-distant past.

One would think that after twenty years of fighting in Afghanistan, our unparalleled military would be well-positioned and heavily fortified to affect an orderly and relatively incident free withdrawal from the Afghan theater, and indeed they easily could have done so if they had been allowed.  America should have started by evacuating all American civilians, Afghan SIV allies, and our coalition allies first.  A draw down of surplus and unnecessary military equipment could have been transported out next or destroyed in place as was prudent.  The last people out should have been our armed forces.  This would have facilitated our continuing support of the Afghan government and military with necessary intelligence, supplies, and as required, targeted strikes and air support to prevent the takeover by the Taliban or other terrorists.

Our President Biden, however, decided against such a phased withdrawal.  He failed to prepare the Afghan government to sustain itself in the absence of U.S. forces, and he failed to coordinate with our coalition allies in the draw down.  Instead, President Joseph Biden decided we’d just pull our military out, ahead of U.S. civilians and allies, all the while declaring that we would leave no one behind.

Your colleague, Congressman Andy Biggs, said it well recently when he stated, “We believe that he (Secretary of State Blinken) has got culpability for much of the travesty that has gone on here.”  He continued, “We’ve also called for resignations of various leaders. We are joined, for instance, in our call for resignations of Secretary Austin and Gen. Milley by [87 retired generals and admirals].”

“We also call upon the person that said ‘the buck stops here,’ who said more than 20 times we will not leave any American behind,” Biggs stated. “The person who basically orchestrated the July 2 evacuation of Bagram [Airfield in Afghanistan] without telling Afghanis, we call upon—most somberly—the resignation of this president, Joe Biden.”

Joe Biden as President of the United States of America has sworn a solemn oath to defend our nation and its constitution.  His primary duty as president is to ensure as much as humanly possible the very safety of our citizens.  Because President Biden refused to faithfully execute such duties, it is now incumbent upon him to step down from office.  If he refuses, I implore that you join with other Americans in congress to either invoke a 25^th amendment remedy to remove him from office, or failing that, to support articles of impeachment accordingly, sir.

I am under no delusions thinking that Speaker Pelosi will even bring such legislation to the House floor for consideration, especially since the Democrats refused to consider a bill to ensure no Americans were left behind in Afghanistan as President Biden promised.  Regardless of the left’s refusal to do the honorable and the right thing, it is incumbent upon the rest of us Americans to do all that is within our power to bring home our fellow Americans when our own President refuses to do so.  The first step in this process is to remove President Biden from office.  I implore you to ensure this happens in whatever legal and moral capacity you have to affect this necessary change, sir.

President Biden has repeatedly lied during this self-created crisis that resulted in hundreds of people being killed that would like be alive today if a well-executed draw down had been instituted.  President Biden has soiled American honor by ignoring our allies and leaving Americans behind in a now-hostile country.  Such displayed cowardice and incompetence are unworthy of America and unworthy of its leader.  Because of the actions of President Biden, America is seen as unreliable and faithless by our allies and most Americans, I dare say.  Our nation is better than this.  Staff Sergeant Hoover and the rest of the military members and innocent Afghanis killed as a direct result of President Biden’s ill-conceived plan and incompetence deserved better.  As we will surely reap what President Biden has sown with future attacks on American soil via our open borders, I request in the strongest of terms to please work within the constitutional rule of law with your colleagues to ensure that America is protected and her honor restored by removing President Biden from office.

Respectfully,

Darrell Michaels

Sandy, Utah