Even some Democrats and Obama-era officials are publicly acknowledging President Biden’s failures and the chaos and devastation. Afghanistan In light of America’s withdrawal.
‘This is a crisis of untold proportions,’ Representative Jackie Spear, D-California, told NBC News on Sunday, as he urged President Biden to address the nation. ‘This is an intelligence failure.’
‘America must not spare the women and children of Afghanistan,’ wrote Representative Hakim Jeffries, president of the Democratic Caucus from New York Twitter early Monday morning.
“Destructive earthquake in Haiti and surprising takeover by Taliban in Afghanistan,” he wrote in a tweet earlier. ‘It’s been a heartbreaking weekend. Either way, America must continue to be a beacon of light and a source of strength to the world’s most vulnerable citizens.
The Taliban now control Kabul and all of Afghanistan after a lightning-fast resurgence that swept the White House. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who met Biden at the White House months ago, has fled his country to an undisclosed location, convinced of the security situation.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged on Monday: ‘It is certainly the case that the speed at which the city collapsed was much greater than anyone anticipated.’
President Biden, who has not been in the White House since Thursday, has yet to make public comment as the situation in Afghanistan worsens.
The US embassy in Kabul was closed on Sunday, the US flag was lowered and almost all personnel were moved to the airport as 6,000 soldiers were deployed to the area to help with their evacuation.
On Monday morning, all US evacuation flights were suspended. Video shows hundreds of Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban regime, breached airport walls and ran behind a US Air Force plane, risking almost certain death as they lay beneath its wheels. and was clinging to the fuselage as it slid down the runway.
US troops fired warning shells into the air amid a chaotic scuffle, killing eight people at the airport while trying to escape.
As Americans were escorted into military flights from the embassy roof at the airport, Rep. Debbie Dingell, a staunch Biden ally, drew parallels to Saigon, where in 1975 American personnel flew in helicopters from the embassy’s roof before South Vietnam. had left. Vietnam fell to Congress.
The Michigan Democrat said, ‘Today it looks like Saigon has collapsed, I’m not going to lie.
Afghans board a passenger jet at Kabul airport amid chaotic scenes, civilians trying to find safe passage from Afghan capital after Taliban takeover
Taliban fighters capture Afghanistan’s presidential palace after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, August 15, 2021. The second person from the left is a former bodyguard for Ghani.
Rep. Kai Kahle, D-Hawaii, who served as a pilot in Afghanistan and Iraq, called on Biden to reverse course to clean up the mess.
“Decisions made by previous and current administrations have put the United States in a catastrophic position and prompt, decisive decisions must be made immediately,” he said in a statement.
Rep Seth Moulton said: ‘To say today is less than a disaster would be dishonest. Worse, it was avoidable.’
‘The time to debate whether we live in Afghanistan has passed, but there is still time to debate how we manage our retreat. For months, I’ve been calling on the administration to immediately evacuate its allies – not to wait for paperwork, for shaky agreements with third countries, or for the time being to make it more ‘orderly’.
‘We must also not forget that the tragedy we face today was initiated by Secretary Pompeo and President Trump, who secretly negotiated with Taliban militants last year to fulfill campaign promises .’
The US reached an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020 where the US would complete its withdrawal and release some Taliban prisoners if the terrorist group would not attack US forces or provide support to terrorist groups.
President Trump had also planned a withdrawal from Afghanistan, and even urged Biden to withdraw troops as soon as possible. But he insisted that the move would have been different under his administration.
‘First Joe Biden surrendered to COVID and it’s back roaring. Then it surrendered to the Taliban, which rapidly overran Afghanistan and destroyed confidence in American power and influence,’ he said in a statement on Monday.
Footage from Hamad Karzai Airport shows hundreds of people running alongside and in front of – a US Air Force plane preparing to take off
Footage showed desperate Afghans trying to land at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai airport after the Taliban broke into the city.
The walls of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul were brutally broken down by hundreds of Afghans as they tried to flee the country
The results, including a return to Afghanistan, would have been completely different if the Trump administration had been in charge. To whom will Joe Biden surrender next? Somebody should ask him, can they find him?’
Trump said Biden “escaped from Afghanistan instead of following the plan our administration had left for him.”
Ryan Crocker, ambassador to Afghanistan under President Obama, said that Afghan forces largely did what the US asked of them and maintained garrisons throughout the country, but such deployments were only viable with US air strikes.
He said the projected collapse without air support represented a “total lack of coordinated, post-withdrawal planning on our part”. Spokesperson – Review.
He said, ‘That’s why all this is very sad. ‘This is a self inflicted wound.’
The administration’s chief negotiator with the Taliban, Zalmay Khalilzad, arrived in Qatar on Monday and pressured the group to halt its offensive and urged other diplomats not to recognize the Taliban government without a peace deal.
But Crocker said the Islamist group is less concerned with diplomacy because of the belief that it has defeated the world’s strongest army. He said the idea could encourage Islamic extremists around the world.
‘We’re going to pay for this for a long time to come, and that’s why it’s crazy – just silly – to think we can tell the Taliban that if they don’t stop occupying territory. And play well, the international community will withhold recognition and support,’ he said. ‘The Taliban don’t really care, because they have something more valuable.’
David Petraeus, a former CIA director who led the Obama-led military in Afghanistan, described the Taliban takeover as “a major national security blow” and warned that unless the US turns its back, things will get worse.
In a statement on Saturday, Biden said he was the fourth president to preside over a military presence in Afghanistan and that he would “not pass this war on to the fifth.”
‘In our nation’s 20 years of war in Afghanistan, America has sent its finest young men and women, invested nearly $1 trillion dollars, trained more than 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, equipping them with state-of-the-art military equipment. Equipped with, and maintained. His air force as part of the longest war in American history,’ Biden said.
‘Another year, or five years, the US military presence doesn’t matter if Afghan forces can’t or won’t occupy their country.’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood by the president’s footsteps in her statement on Saturday, but warned the Taliban about the mistreatment of women.
The Taliban should know that the world is watching their movements. We are deeply concerned about the reports about Taliban’s brutal treatment of all Afghans, especially women and girls. The United States, the international community, and the Afghan government must do everything possible to protect women and girls from inhuman treatment by the Taliban.
‘Any political settlement made by Afghans to stop the bloodshed must include putting women on the table. The future of women and girls in Afghanistan is critical to the future of Afghanistan.
Thousands of Afghans have been trying to leave the capital since the city was captured by the Taliban. An American soldier is pictured aiming his weapon at a passenger at Kabul airport
Videos posted on social media showed hundreds of people trying to climb outside the airbridge to board commercial liners parked at Hamad Karzai airport
.