PAKISTANFOREVER
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2015
- Messages
- 17,371
- Reaction score
- -6
- Country
- Location
Afghanistan: ‘Humiliating’ defeat to the Taliban makes US ‘look like suckers’, say security officials
The US poured in trillions of dollars to the 20-year Afghan effort that claimed the lives of 2,448 Americans
By Taz Ali
August 16, 2021 11:43 am(Updated 1:39 pm)
US President Joe Biden is facing growing criticism for the way the US has handled the botched withdrawal of troops and diplomats in Afghanistan, with a former national security adviser saying the situation made the US “look like suckers”.
British and American troops are racing against the clock to get remaining UK and US nationals and their local allies out of Afghanistan, which is under Taliban control following the dramatic fall of the country’s Western-backed government.
John Bolton, who served as US national security adviser to former president Donald Trump, said the withdrawal of US and Nato troops from Afghanistan was a mistake.
The freshest exclusives and sharpest analysis, curated for your inbox
US President Joe Biden meets virtually with his national security team and senior officials for a briefing on Afghanistan (Photo: The White House via AP)
“It makes us look like we’re suckers,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It was a very big mistake, and at this late hour that they still can’t figure out what their policy is shows how badly flawed it is.”
Read More
Who is the Taliban leader? Islamist group’s leadership in Afghanistan explained after it seizes Kabul
Mr Bolton said he did not entirely blame the dire situation in Afghanistan on Mr Biden and that Mr Trump had “started the problem”.
He added: “Biden has said on Saturday that he was carrying out Trump’s policy. He happens to be carrying it out in a particularly ineffective way. But it is a Trump-Biden withdrawal and it is a mistake.”
Former North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) senior civilian representative in Afghanistan and former UK ambassador to Afghanistan Lord Sedwill told the Today programme: “We must be clear about this, this is a humiliating moment for the West.
“Afghan citizens are fearful, extremists everywhere will be emboldened.”
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after president Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing a stunning end to the 20-year war in which the US and its allies had tried to transform Afghanistan.
The US poured in trillions of dollars and lost 2,448 soldiers in its fight to oust the Taliban and bolster the West-backed Afghan government.
Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country (Photo: Zabi Karimi/AP)
By Sunday, leading figures in the Biden administration acknowledged they were caught off guard with the speed of the collapse of Afghan security forces.
“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country, and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
While Republicans have not pushed Mr Biden to keep troops in the country, some have used the situation to level criticism at the US leader.
Republican senator Mitch McConnell slammed the “botched exit” and deemed the scenes of withdrawal as “the embarrassment of a superpower laid low”.
President Biden has insisted he would not hand America’s longest war to his successor. In his memoir Richard Holbrooke, who was special envoy to Afghanistan under former US President Barack Obama, said he remembered then-vice president Biden saying he was “not sending my boy back there to risk his life on behalf of [Afghan] women’s rights”.
Mr Holbrooke wrote that when he asked Biden about America’s obligation to the Afghan people, he replied: “F**k that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.”
inews.co.uk
The US poured in trillions of dollars to the 20-year Afghan effort that claimed the lives of 2,448 Americans
By Taz Ali
August 16, 2021 11:43 am(Updated 1:39 pm)
US President Joe Biden is facing growing criticism for the way the US has handled the botched withdrawal of troops and diplomats in Afghanistan, with a former national security adviser saying the situation made the US “look like suckers”.
British and American troops are racing against the clock to get remaining UK and US nationals and their local allies out of Afghanistan, which is under Taliban control following the dramatic fall of the country’s Western-backed government.
John Bolton, who served as US national security adviser to former president Donald Trump, said the withdrawal of US and Nato troops from Afghanistan was a mistake.
The freshest exclusives and sharpest analysis, curated for your inbox
“It makes us look like we’re suckers,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It was a very big mistake, and at this late hour that they still can’t figure out what their policy is shows how badly flawed it is.”
Read More
Who is the Taliban leader? Islamist group’s leadership in Afghanistan explained after it seizes Kabul
Mr Bolton said he did not entirely blame the dire situation in Afghanistan on Mr Biden and that Mr Trump had “started the problem”.
He added: “Biden has said on Saturday that he was carrying out Trump’s policy. He happens to be carrying it out in a particularly ineffective way. But it is a Trump-Biden withdrawal and it is a mistake.”
Former North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) senior civilian representative in Afghanistan and former UK ambassador to Afghanistan Lord Sedwill told the Today programme: “We must be clear about this, this is a humiliating moment for the West.
“Afghan citizens are fearful, extremists everywhere will be emboldened.”
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after president Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing a stunning end to the 20-year war in which the US and its allies had tried to transform Afghanistan.
The US poured in trillions of dollars and lost 2,448 soldiers in its fight to oust the Taliban and bolster the West-backed Afghan government.
By Sunday, leading figures in the Biden administration acknowledged they were caught off guard with the speed of the collapse of Afghan security forces.
“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country, and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
While Republicans have not pushed Mr Biden to keep troops in the country, some have used the situation to level criticism at the US leader.
Republican senator Mitch McConnell slammed the “botched exit” and deemed the scenes of withdrawal as “the embarrassment of a superpower laid low”.
President Biden has insisted he would not hand America’s longest war to his successor. In his memoir Richard Holbrooke, who was special envoy to Afghanistan under former US President Barack Obama, said he remembered then-vice president Biden saying he was “not sending my boy back there to risk his life on behalf of [Afghan] women’s rights”.
Mr Holbrooke wrote that when he asked Biden about America’s obligation to the Afghan people, he replied: “F**k that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.”
‘Humiliating’ defeat to the Taliban makes US ‘look like suckers’, say security officials
The US poured in trillions of dollars to the 20-year Afghan effort that claimed the lives of 2,448 Americans
inews.co.uk
