Even some Democrats and Obama-era officials are publicly conceding President Biden's failures and the chaos and devastation unfolding in Afghanistan in light of the US' withdrawal.'
'This is a crisis of untold proportions,' Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., told NBC News Sunday, as she urged President Biden to address the nation. 'This is an intelligence failure.'
'America must not abandon the women and children of Afghanistan,' Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Caucus chair from New York, wrote on Twitter early Monday morning.
'Devastating earthquake in Haiti and stunning takeover by the Taliban in Afghanistan,' he wrote in an earlier tweet. It's been a heartbreaking weekend. Somehow America must remain a beacon of light and source of strength for the world's most vulnerable citizens.'
The Taliban now control Kabul and all of Afghanistan after a lightning-fast resurgence that left heads spinning at the White House. Afghani President Ashraf Ghani, who met with Biden at the White House months ago sounding confident about the security situation, has fled his country to an undisclosed location.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan admitted Monday: 'It's certainly the case that the speed with which cities fell was much greater than anyone anticipated.'
President Biden, who hasn't been at the White House since Thursday, has yet to deliver public remarks since the situation in Afghanistan took a turn for the worst.
The US embassy in Kabul was closed down Sunday, the American flag was lowered and almost all personnel were whisked away to the airport as 6,000 troops deployed to the region to help with their evacuation.
On Monday morning, all US evacuation flights were suspended. Videos shows hundreds of Afghans desperate to flee Taliban rule broke through airport walls and ran after a US Air Force plane, risking almost certain death as they darted beneath its wheels and clung onto the fuselage as it hurtled down the runway.
US troops fired warning shots into the air amid the chaotic scramble, and eight people died at the airport in their attempt to escape.
As Americans were airlifted from the roof of the embassy to board military flights at the airport, Rep. Debbie Dingell, a staunch Biden ally, admitted similarities to Saigon, where in 1975 US personnel left in helicopters from the roof of the embassy before South Vietnam fell to the Viet Cong.
'It does feel like the fall of Saigon today, I'm not going to lie,' said the Michigan Democrat.
Afghans climb on top of a passenger jet at Kabul's airport amid chaotic scenes as civilians try to find safe passage out of the Afghan capital after Taliban takeover
Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2021. Person second from left is a former bodyguard for Ghani.
Rep. Kai Kahele, 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 calamitous situation and swift, decisive decisions must be made immediately,' he said in a statement.
Rep. Seth Moulton said: 'To say that today is anything short of a disaster would be dishonest. Worse, it was avoidable.'
'The time to debate whether we stay in Afghanistan has passed, but there is still time to debate how we manage our retreat. For months, I have been calling on the Administration to evacuate our allies immediately—not to wait for paperwork, for shaky agreements with third countries, or for time to make it look more 'orderly.''
'We should also not forget that the tragedy that unfolds before us today was set in motion by Secretary Pompeo and President Trump, who negotiated in secret with the Taliban terrorists last year in order to meet a campaign promise.'
The US entered a deal 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 an Afghanistan withdrawal, and even urged Biden to withdraw troops sooner. But he insists the move-out would have been different under his administration.
'First Joe Biden surrendered to COVID and it has come roaring back. Then he surrendered to the Taliban, who has quickly overtaken Afghanistan and destroyed confidence in American power and influence,' he said in a statement Monday.
Footage from Hamad Karzai airport showed hundreds of people running alongside - and in front of - a US Air Force plane preparing to take off
Footage showed desperate Afghans trying to climb onto grounded planes at Kabul's Hamid Karzai airport after the Taliban swept the city
Hundreds of Afghans desperately scaled the walls of Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul as they try to flee the country
'The outcome in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal, would have been totally different if the Trump Administration had been in charge. Who or what will Joe Biden surrender to next? Someone should ask him, if they can find him.'
Trump said Biden 'ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him.'
Ryan Crocker, ambassador to Afghanistan under President Obama, said Afghan forces largely did what the US asked of them and maintained garrisons throughout the country, but that such deployments were only viable with US airstrikes.
He said the predictable collapse without air support represents 'a total lack of coordinated, post-withdrawal planning on our part,' according to the Spokesman-Review.
'That's why this is all so sad,' he said. 'It is a self-inflicted wound.'
Zalmay Khalilzad, the administration's chief negotiator with the Taliban, arrived in Qatar Monday to press the group to cease its offensive and urge other diplomats not to recognize a Taliban government without a peace deal.
But Crocker said the Islamist group is less concerned with diplomacy than it is the idea it just defeated the world's strongest military. He said the idea could embolden Islamist militants throughout the world.
'We're going to pay for that for a long time to come, and that's why it is insane – just idiotic – to think that we can tell the Taliban that if they don't stop taking over territory and play nice, the international community will withhold recognition and support,' he said. 'The Taliban really doesn't care, because they've got something far more valuable.'
Former CIA director David Petraeus, who led forces in Afghanistan under Obama, called the Taliban takeover an 'enormous national security setback,' and warned things will get much worse unless the US changes course.
On Saturday in a statement, Biden said he had been the fourth president to preside over a troop presence in Afghanistan and he would not 'pass this war onto a fifth.'
'Over our country's 20 years at war in Afghanistan, America has sent its finest young men and women, invested nearly $1 trillion dollars, trained over 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, equipped them with state-of-the-art military equipment, and maintained their air force as part of the longest war in U.S. history,' Biden said.
'One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country.'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stood by the president's actions in her own statement Saturday, but warned about Taliban mistreatment of women.
'The Taliban must know that the world is watching its actions. We are deeply concerned about reports regarding the Taliban's brutal treatment of all Afghans, especially women and girls. The U.S., the international community and the Afghan government must do everything we can to protect women and girls from inhumane treatment by the Taliban,' she said.
'Any political settlement that the Afghans pursue to avert bloodshed must include having women at the table. The fate of women and girls in Afghanistan is critical to the future of Afghanistan.'
Thousands of Afghans are trying to get on to flights out of the capital following the Taliban's seizure of the city. A US soldier is pictured aiming his weapon at a passenger at Kabul airport
Video posted social media showed hundreds of people trying to climb the outside of airbridges to board commercial liners grounded in Hamad Karzai airport
No comments:
Post a Comment