Former President Donald Trump and the Biden administration traded shots Monday over who bore the most blame for last year’s Afghanistan collapse, the deaths of 13 American troops and the abandonment of tens of thousands of Afghans who had been promised a safe place but who were abandoned by the U.S. withdrawal.
Donald Trump supported the withdrawal. He did so by signing a 2020 deal with the Taliban.
But, he stated on Truth Social, his website, that the pullout did not have to cause the chaos seen last year. With Kabul falling to Taliban forces, U.S. troops were chased to the airport and civilians fell from their evacuation planes.
” The Afghanistan catastrophe of just one year ago was “the most embarrassing, incompetent, and humiliating incident in American history,” Trump stated.
He said he deserved credit for cutting the number of troops to about 2,000 by the end of his administration “in preparation for leaving,” but said “the way we left” led to the suicide bombing that killed 13 American troops and left behind hundreds of U.S. citizens.
The Biden White House claimed that it was Trump who put Afghanistan on the road to destruction.
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Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council stated that Mr. Trump dealt them a loss because of a 2020 agreement with the Taliban which undercut the U.S. position.
“The 2020 deal with the Taliban by the former President Trump empowered them, weakened our Afghan partners and promised to withdraw our troops within a few months of President Biden’s induction – without any clear plan as to what would happen next.” she stated.
She referred to Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr.’s testimony, which was the head of U.S. Central Command and oversaw Afghanistan operations. He stated that the withdrawal agreement had a significant impact on Afghanistan’s security forces, establishing a date for when America would withdraw its assistance.
” When we assumed office, the Taliban had reached its highest military position since 2001, ex-President Trump released thousands of Taliban fighters, and there were very few U.S troops on the ground,” said Ms. Watson.
Yet, she, just like Donald Trump, believed that withdrawing was the best decision.
” Bringing in our troops strengthened our national security and better prepared us for the future challenges. It also placed the United States in an even stronger position to lead the global community.” she stated. It freed up important military and intelligence resources that will allow us to better respond to current threats to international stability and peace .
James Jeffrey is the chairman of Wilson Center’s Middle East Program. He said that both governments are correct on this count.
” I strongly supported the bipartisan efforts by the Trump Administration and the Biden administration to withdraw,” stated Mr. Jeffrey. He was deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush government, Ambassador to Iraq under President Obama, and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS Under President Trump. We had not achieved the same goals that we set for ourselves. This was the right decision. It was .”
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Mr. Jeffrey was present at the U.S. troop withdrawal in Iraq in 2011, and said that Mr. Biden had ignored numerous warnings about the possibility of Afghanistan falling, even though troops were withdrawing. He also said that there were no signs Mr. Biden tried to pull the withdrawal closer towards the winter, which might have created a permissible climate.
” Any evacuation is chaotic,” said he. There are far more people trying to evacuate than you can handle. It was done poorly, however. His overall policy was correct. His mistake was not to plan and ensure that there wasn’t a chaos evacuation
The Afghanistan withdrawal was the worst foreign bungle for the U.S. since Benghazi, with the western-backed government in Afghanistan collapsing a year ago, on Aug. 15, 2021. It also ended a honeymoon for Biden’s administration.
Mr. Trump’s Monday comments echoed those of the past year. He said that the Biden administration had shown weakness in its handling Afghanistan.
Trump often mixes his blame for Biden’s administration with his defense of his own actions, such as the 2020 Doha Agreement which set a withdrawal timeline.
This called for U.S. troops out by the end of spring 2021. Mr. Biden delayed that date to Sept. 11, 2021, before realizing that was symbolically bad timing, and moved it to the end of August.
Mr. Trump tells his supporters in campaign rallies that he is prepared to end his agreement with Taliban leaders and defer withdrawal of troops until stability is assured.
Mr. Trump on Monday did make one false claim about the withdrawal, saying it gave “the enemy” more than $85 billion “of the best military equipment in the world. It’s so sad !”
In fact, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction stated that the Defense Department had estimated that $7 billion of U.S.-supplied military equipment was in Afghanistan at the time that the government collapsed last year.
The inspector general stated that some of it had fallen in the hands of Taliban but that the exact amount is not known.
