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Biden Stands Squarely Behind Afghanistan Decision
President Joe Biden faced the media last Monday and doubled down on his Afghanistan decision to move out. He blamed the Afghan government and military for giving up control easily to the Taliban.
RELATED: Trump Says Biden Should Resign For Epic Afghanistan Fail
Biden Defends Afghanistan Decision
Biden said the US-backed Afghan leadership abandoned its people. “Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country; the Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight. If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending US military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,” he said.
Speaking from the White House, Biden affirmed his Afghanistan decision, saying he is ‘squarely’ behind it. In addition, he argued that he faced between continuing the US military withdrawal, or escalating the conflict further and risking more American lives. “I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces. That's why we're still there.”
Taliban Seizes Control Of Afghanistan
Following Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s decision to flee the country Sunday, Taliban forces seized control of the capital, Kabul. This marks the beginning of the end of a 20-year attempt by the US to establish a democratic Afghan government.
Within hours of the capture of Kabul, many locals swarmed the international airport in the hope of catching a flight out of the country. Afghans managed to enter the military area of the airport and climbed aboard US Air Force cargo planes.
An amateur video showed apparent scenes where people who clung to the landing apparently fell off as the USAF plane took off.
White House Caught Off Guard
Apparently, the rapid pace at which the Taliban took over the country caught the White House off guard. The US had to send additional troops to Afghanistan to help with evacuations.
However, the US Embassy, which was supposed to remain open, already completed its evacuation Sunday evening. Meanwhile, Biden elected to stay at Camp David, the presidential retreat, as the Afghan chaos continued.
“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” Biden said. He added that the government prepared for various scenarios to complete US withdrawal.
However, they said that the Afghan government and military didn’t want to defend their own country. “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” he said. He also insisted that if the Afghan military failed to resist the Taliban now, retaining US troops there wouldn’t make any difference.
Afghanistan Decision Was A Catastrophic Failure
As Afghanistan plunges back into Taliban control, Democrats, including former President Barack Obama’s officials, joined Republicans in criticizing Biden’s handling of the withdrawal.
While many agreed with the ultimate withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, many also scored Biden for his apparent lack of preparation. Specifically, they hit the administration’s failure to help evacuate thousands of Afghans who assisted US troops during their 20-year stay. They also criticized Biden for the chaotic evacuation of Americans over the weekend.
California Democrat Representative Jackie Speier didn’t mince words as she urged Biden to appear before the nation. “This is a crisis of untold proportions.
This is an intelligence failure,” she said. In addition, former Afghanistan Ambassador Ryan Crocker said the Biden With House displayed “a total lack of coordinated, post-withdrawal planning,” and that the predicament was a “self-inflicted wound.”
Watch the Reuters news video reporting that US President Joe Biden stands ‘squarely behind' Afghanistan decision:
Loading ...Do you agree with the decision to completely withdraw from Afghanistan? Did you envision it would be this chaotic when the US said they will be leaving the country so it can govern itself?
Share your thoughts about the Afghanistan decision made by Biden. Write down your comments in the comment section below.
9 Comments
Personally I never agreed with going there in the first place. We have a bad habit of screwing over our allies as soon as we get tired of a fight. We go into the fight with good intentions but that dissolves when we see that we are not in the fight to win. We get bored and next move is the Choppers landing on building tops, usually one of our worthless embassies. All we need is a coward and/or a traitor in the WH and repeat the picture. Many a brave soldier has watched these chopper rides with pure disgust and the conscious thought “We will not fight for these corrupt cowards again”. I watched the Saigon debacle and was sick. Many a good man has watched this with pure disgust!
I have to agree with Robert! I am a Vietnam Veteran and I volunteered to go to fight for my country and the cause, but as the years passed you could see the total lack of commitment all controlled by an unknowing Political arena and some high ranking Generals that wanted to look good by falsely stating daily kills of the enemy! I/we lost over 58,000 men and women in that war only to turn tail and run. What was the sense of it all. We left, the country fell the the Communist North Vietnamese, and for what? Looks to me to be almost the same set up to end with the same horrific ending, nothing but death and destruction of a lot of good Americans. Robert is right on this was/is DISGUSTING!
We tried leaving VN a functional country, but congress cut their throats by terminating all funding for their military, probably because democrats could not have a republican president who successfully fulfilled his campaign promises. I was not high enough in the food chain for the whole picture, but that’s what I saw.
Biden has never been on the right side of a foreign policy decision in 40+ years. His goal now is to be seen by history as a president that is not afraid to make major, snap decisions. He knows half the Country thinks he is losing his cognitive facilities, so he is going to prove to them he still has it. To paraphrase, it is easier to ask forgiveness than to ask for advice.
Remember when Obama’s Secretary of Defense [Robert Gates] said Biden has been ‘wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades’? It turns out he was spot on.”
And then we have Obama’s admonition … “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up.”
With the whole might of the Soviet military behind it – RUSSIA bailed out of Afghanistan. THAT in itself should have been a warning sign that the US had NO business getting involved there. They have nothing we need, and if they’re thinking terrorists, there are friendlies (Saudi Arabia for one) who are hotbeds of active terrorists. We should be looking out for our own homeland. We ended up evacuating over 100,000 Vietnamese when Saigon fell in April 1975 in a major humanitarian action (Operation New Life). It could have been done in Afghanistan instead of leaving those who worked for or supported the US involvement to the cruelty of the taliban. Shame on Biden & Co.!!
Joe Biden could not manage or control a romper room. The man is an idiot.
I believe the only thing Jerk Biden ever stook squarely behind was Barack Obama.
And THAT was NOT a political stance.
I am a Vietnam veteran with 3 tours in that shit hole country. Politicians and moronic generals have got their heads so far up each other’s assholes that any decision is going to be a cluster fuck. That is what Afghanistan was and is. We learned nothing from the Russians and Afghanistan is a 7th century country with non humans running it now! Taht you Joe Biden you demented asshole!