Thousands of people are desperate to leave Afghanistan after the city of Kabul has been taken over by the Taliban. The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani has fled into hiding, and in the ensuing chaos a number of people are reported to have been killed as US troops are currently attempting to assist in evacuation efforts of U.S. embassy personnel and civilians.
According to the Pentagon and State Department: “Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the US mission in Kabul and their families and particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals.”
Since announcing a pullout of Afghanistan, Biden has faced criticisms from the right, including Trump.
“If president Biden Truly has no regrets about his decision to withdraw, then he is disconnected from reality,” Lindsey Graham tweeted.
Jim Banks, who voted to overturn the election of Joe Biden, told Fox News: “We have never seen an American leader abdicate his responsibilities and leadership like Joe Biden.”
If he hadn’t mentioned the president by name, one might think he was talking about Donald Trump.
“He’s in hiding,” Banks continued. “The lights are on at the White House, but nobody’s home. Where’s Joe Biden?,”
Last year, in February, the Trump administration set up a peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban. The agreement stipulated that all U.S. military troops would vacate Afghanistan by the end of 2021.
Trump’s statement: “Had our 2020 presidential election not been rigged and if I were now president, the world would find that our withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a conditions-based withdrawal. I personally had discussions with top Taliban leaders whereby they understood what they are doing now would not have been acceptable. It would have been a much different and much more successful withdrawal, and the Taliban understood that much better than anyone. What is going on now is not acceptable.”
Via Slate:
“Former President Donald Trump is telling lies about how he would have handled the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, opening a new avenue for Trump-dazed Republicans to attack Joe Biden.
“In other words, there is no evidence that a withdrawal under Trump would have been “much more successful” than it’s going under Biden. Trump’s swift withdrawal of a small contingent of peacekeeping troops from Syria in Oct. 2019, leaving Kurdish allies open to Turkish slaughter, suggests that Trump would have been no more discerning about protecting Afghans. ( The Kurds had been instrumental in helping U. S. troops crush ISIS in northern Syria ).
“The falsehoods not withstanding, Trump’s statement will no doubt be parroted by Congressional Republicans and conservative pundits in the coming weeks and months.
“Now, however, the critics have received the word from their leader-in-exile: withdrawal isn’t a bad thing, but withdrawal under Trump would have been “conditions-based,” and it would have been “much more successful.” When things worsen in Afghanistan, and they almost certainly will, this will be their mantra for attacking Joe Biden’s foreign policy – and for absolving themselves of complicity.”
Sources: Reuters, Slate.
The Weekly News 