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Post by Admin on Aug 16, 2021 0:29:12 GMT
A former US military base is now in the hands of the Taliban as the future of Afghanistan is unclear. CNN's Clarissa Ward reports exclusively from what remains of Combat Outpost Andar in Afghanistan's Ghazni province. Former President Donald Trump Sunday called on President Joe Biden to “resign in disgrace” over his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal and other issues. “It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan, along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy,” the former president wrote in a statement. The Taliban has rapidly taken control of most of the country as insurgent forces enter the capital city of Kabul, where U.S. troops have been sent to evacuate the embassy. Mobs of panicked people can be seen at the Kabul airport frantically trying to flee the city on Sunday. Trump’s administration had negotiated the terms of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1. Trump even considered withdrawing troops from the region before leaving office. When President Biden announced that he planned to fully withdraw troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he was slammed by Trump who insisted Biden “keep as close” as possible to his own goal of getting the troops out on May 1. “I made early withdraw possible by already pulling much of our billions of dollars of equipment out and, more importantly, reducing our military presence to less than 2,000 troops from the 16,000 level that was there (likewise in Iraq, and zero troops in Syria except for the area where we KEPT THE OIL),” he said in an email to supporters in April. Republicans have blasted Biden for the current crisis in the country, where the U.S. had maintained a presence for 20 years.
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Post by Admin on Aug 16, 2021 4:23:25 GMT
Without saying directly that the U.S. was shutting down its embassy in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the U.S. was evacuating personnel from the facility in Kabul.
"We are working to make sure that our personnel are safe and secure," Blinken told host Jonathan Karl on ABC's "This Week."
"We're relocating the men and women of our embassy to a location at the airport. It's why the president sent in a number of forces, to make sure that as we continue to draw down our diplomatic presence we do it in a safe and orderly fashion," he said.
Blinken deflected a follow-up question as to whether the evacuations meant the embassy was being shut down entirely.
Karl suggested that the images of helicopters airlifting American personnel recalled the panicked exodus from Saigon during the chaotic end to the Vietnam War in 1975. Blinken rejected that comparison.
"Let's take a step back. This is manifestly not Saigon," said Blinken, saying the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had succeeded in its primary goal, getting rid of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"That message should ring out very strongly," he added later.
President Joe Biden announced a final pullout of U.S. forces from Afghanistan earlier this year. Blinken rejected the notion that keeping a limited contingent of American forces would have stopped the Taliban, saying the Trump administration's promise of U.S. withdrawal created a scenario by which a large Taliban offensive was inevitable at some point.
"Remember that a deadline was established by the previous administration of May 1st to get our remaining forces out of Afghanistan and the idea that we could’ve sustained the status quo by keeping our forces there, I think, is wrong, because here’s what would have happened if the president decided to keep those forces there," he said.
"During the period from when the agreement was reached to May 1st, the Taliban had ceased attacking our forces, ceased attacking NATO forces. It had also held off on this major offensive that we see now, Blinken said.
"Come May 2nd, if the President decided to say — all gloves would have been off. We would have been back at war with the Taliban. They would have been attacking our forces," he said.
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Post by Admin on Aug 16, 2021 13:55:57 GMT
#Taliban #Afghanistan #Biden White House Scrambles To Contain Fallout From Taliban Takeover Of Afghanistan
Scenes of chaos in Afghanistan have quickly become the Biden administration’s biggest foreign policy challenge. Under fire from both sides of the aisle, the White House is scrambling to contain the fallout. NBC chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander reports for TODAY.
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Post by Admin on Aug 16, 2021 18:47:49 GMT
President Biden Delivers Remarks on Afghanistan
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Post by Admin on Aug 17, 2021 19:03:50 GMT
If there's one thing an American president doesn't want to see, it's the kind of pictures that have played out on cable news of the chaos in Kabul — crowded runways of people desperate to get out, with some hanging from the outsides of U.S. cargo planes and, for those lucky enough to get in, crammed on the floor. There are humanitarian concerns facing the Afghan people. But the disorganization and confusion of President Biden's full U.S. military withdrawal of Afghanistan have also put him in a political hole. After doing what three presidents before him didn't — or wouldn't — do even if they advocated for it, Biden is facing a bipartisan backlash. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argues President Biden should be less focused on trying to blame the problem in Afghanistan on the Trump administration and should focus on 'making sure that we protect and defend American security.' On Monday, he took a degree of responsibility, saying the buck stops with him, but he mostly blamed Afghan leaders and forces and defended the larger policy direction. "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 remarks, noting the $1 trillion and nearly 20 years the U.S. has spent there since the 9/11 attacks.
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