Gee, ain’t it grand to have the adults back in charge? This news flash late last night didn’t come from the Babylon Bee, which might find that satire is increasingly difficult in the Joe Biden era. Not only is the State Department shocked, shocked to find no women in the new Taliban-controlled government in Afghanistan, they’re also shocked, shocked to find it populated with “the Taliban or their close associates.”

No, really (via Twitchy):

The State Department on Tuesday expressed concerns over the makeup of the new interim Afghan government announced by the Taliban, including the lack of female leaders and the past actions of some of those appointed to top posts.

A State Department spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Hill that although the Taliban “has presented this as a caretaker cabinet,” the U.S. “will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words.”

“We have made clear our expectation that the Afghan people deserve an inclusive government,” the spokesperson added.

The statement went on to note that the list of names announced by the Taliban earlier Tuesday “consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates and no women.”

The Afghan people certainly do deserve an inclusive government. However, it became clear almost immediately upon taking office that the Biden administration didn’t think that was their problem. They inherited a partnership with Afghanistan in which women had some representation in elected office and in law enforcement. Biden’s actions in withdrawing while kicking all of the supports still left to that government and its army out from underneath them guaranteed the end of that “diversity.”

Under those circumstances, it’s tough to imagine a less serious and more impotent objection from our State Department. The Taliban’s clearly demonstrated track record and radical-Islamist ideology forbids women from positions of authority over men. It is also a very exclusive clique, as are most totalitarian exercises. The Taliban fought for twenty years to return to power, only to be handed victory by the US without a fight in the end. Did anyone at all expect their regime to be one of power sharing and consensus politics? If that was what the Taliban wanted, they could have had that two decades ago by becoming a political party in the US-sponsored government.

The Taliban haven’t changed, and they haven’t become kinder and gentler either. The State Department knows that damned well, too. The only reason to issue this politically correct gruel is for consumption here at home, trying to convince the rubes that they’re surprised to see the Taliban act like the Taliban. There aren’t enough rubes after twenty years of war to make that sale, so it instead just exposes them as the dishonest manipulators they are.

And for that, they win today’s Captain Louis Renault Award. Unfortunately for us, they’re gambling with the lives of Afghans, as well as the Americans that Joe Biden abandoned in Afghanistan.