America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan is coming to a chaotic end. The Taliban has seized control of the capital of Kabul, effectively completing its campaign to take back the country.
Now that emergency evacuations are underway, President Ashraf Ghani has fled, and despite two decades of training and trillions in funding, Afghan security forces collapsed without a fight.
“We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force, something the Taliban doesn’t have. The Taliban doesn’t have an air force. We provided air support. We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide them, was the will to fight for their future,” President Biden said addressing the nation on Monday.
The president said he inherited the deal from the Trump administration and didn’t see an option besides to abide by it.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tells CBN News that what we’re seeing today is not what the Trump administration negotiated.
“They decided to pull out the military before they got civilians out. They hadn’t adequately planned. And in terms of the agreement, the Taliban clearly broke the agreement and President Trump was unequivocally clear, you break the agreement, and we will come and break you,” Pompeo said.
Critics call Afghanistan Biden’s, “Saigon Moment.” Scenes of Chinook helicopters evacuating U.S. personnel from the now-shuttered embassy, eerily similar to what took place at the end of the Vietnam War.
The situation, this morning, from the Kabul Airport, was chaotic and heartbreaking. Thousands surging the tarmac, desperate to get out of the country.
As many as 7,000 U.S. troops are now en route or in Afghanistan working to evacuate American embassy personnel, Afghan interpreters, their families, and others who helped the U.S. military.
“If they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation, the U.S. presence will be swift and the response will be swift and forceful,” Biden said Monday.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle want to know what went wrong and who’s to blame.
Iraq veteran, Rep. Seth Moulton D-MA, said in a statement, “The fact that at this hour we have not even secured the civilian half of Kabul Airport is a
Rep. Adam Kinzinger R-IL, also a veteran, released a statement blaming the Trump administration for negotiating with the Taliban, and the Biden administration for withdrawing US forces without, “any semblance of a plan or forethought into how this would play out.”
“This will be a stain on Biden’s presidency, and I think he is going to have blood on his hands for what they did,” said Rep. Michael McCaul R-FL.
The president and his cabinet continue to defend the decision for an unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden said in his address to the nation.
Meanwhile, during an emergency UN Security Council meeting, Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General urged members not to abandon the Afghan people.
“Afghans are a proud people with a rich cultural heritage, they have known generations of war and hardship. They deserve our full support. The following days will be pivotal. The world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,” said Guterres.
According to some house church networks within Afghanistan, identified believers are receiving letters from the Taliban, warning that they know where they are and what they’re doing.
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