Lloyd Austin denies Biden’s claim, report finds Afghan government will not fall

Lloyd Austin said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that some intelligence assessments had predicted Taliban will gain control of Afghanistan There were no such reports within months of the withdrawal of US troops – contrary to President Biden’s claims in July.

“There were assessments that initially ranged from one to two years to, you know, several months, but it was a wide range of assessments,” the defense secretary told ABC News’ Martha Radtz in a pre-taped interview. .

Austin also said that no organization had predicted that the Islamic terrorist group would re-emerge with such force and be able to capture the lion’s share of the country in less than two weeks.

On the acquisition, he said, “It all happened in a span of about 11 days.” ‘Nobody predicted, you know, the government would fall in 11 days.’

He said the evolving situation has made it difficult for intelligence and military officials to accurately assess the final outcome.

“As the Taliban began to make gains, and then we saw that in many cases, there was less fighting and more surrenders and more forces evaporating, it was very difficult to predict with accuracy,” Austin said.

The defense secretary’s remarks contradict what Biden said last month.

“Your own intelligence community has assessed that the Afghan government is likely to fall,” a reporter told the president during a July 8 press conference.

Biden retaliated by saying, ‘That’s not true.’

“They didn’t jump to that conclusion,” insisted the president, which appears to be wrong based on Austin’s comments.

Biden said during the press conference, ‘The Afghan government and leadership have to come together. ‘He clearly has the ability to sustain the government. The question is, will they create that kind of unity to do it?’

‘It is not a question of whether he has the ability or not. They have potential,’ he continued.

Another reporter asked during a press conference last month: ‘Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?’

‘No, it’s not,’ Biden replied.

‘You have 300,000 Afghan soldiers – well equipped, as well as any army in the world – and an air force, 75,000 against something like the Taliban. It’s not inevitable,’ he explained.

Since the failed withdrawal, Biden has attempted to blame his predecessor and Afghan security forces and has forgotten many of the details associated with his decision to pull all troops out of Afghanistan by August 31.

In his first interview since the Taliban took over the country, Biden said he couldn’t “remember” if he was warned to maintain a military presence in Afghanistan.

During the same interview he insisted that ‘no one is being killed’ at Kabul airport despite at least a dozen confirmed deaths linked to the chaotic scenes.

He also acknowledged that without former President Donald Trump’s deal to pull everyone out by May 1 would still have pulled troops from Afghanistan – in contrast to repeatedly pointing the finger at his predecessor for the chaos.

“Your top military advisers warned against going back on this timeline — they wanted you to have about 2,500 soldiers,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos told Biden in an interview aired Thursday.

‘No, they didn’t,’ the president pushed back. ‘It was split. It was not true. It was not true.’

‘They didn’t tell you they wanted soldiers to be there?’ Stephanopoulos asked.

Biden reiterated, ‘No, not in the context of whether we were going to get out in a time frame – all soldiers, he didn’t argue against it.

There were several warnings from top officials and military intelligence officials, who warned against a total withdrawal from Afghanistan, claiming that the situation had been prepared for the Taliban.

Reports emerged last week that Biden knew the risks of a total military withdrawal and went ahead with it anyway, despite his team’s objections and warnings.

Biden said in the interview that chaos in Kabul was inevitable – months after saying it – and spoke to a question over photos of Afghans falling from planes and packing C-17s while desperately trying to flee the Taliban.

Republicans and Democrats blasted presidential performances from all walks of life with Biden branding ‘shameful’ and calling for ‘taking responsibility’ for scenes of violence and disorder in recent days as thousands attempted to flee, while The Taliban advanced.

At one point during the interview last week, Biden said, “We now have control of the airport, because they have taken what is widely seen as the wrong move in getting Americans and allies out of Afghanistan.”

Stephanopoulos pushed back: ‘There’s still a lot of commotion outside the airport.’

‘Oh, there is,’ the president admitted in the interview.

‘But no one is being killed right now,’ he claimed. ‘God forgive me if I’m wrong about this, but no one is being murdered right now.’

More than a dozen deaths have been confirmed since Kabul was captured by the Taliban on Sunday, when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country – including a 14-year-old girl who was crushed in a stampede. was murdered.

Two people were killed after being crushed by a plane rolling off the runway at Kabul airport, two were shot by US military personnel and two others were killed by a US Air Force plane last Monday as they boarded the plane. were glued to the edge. When it broke away from Hamid Karzai International.

Of the frightening scenes at the airport, Biden dismissed it as a thing of the past.

‘We’ve all seen the pictures. We have seen hundreds of those people packing in C-17s. You’ve seen the Afghans fall,” Stephanopoulos said before the president cut him off.

“That was four days ago, five days ago,” Biden shot back.