'We Will Not Forget': Politicians Scold Biden for Chaotic Afghanistan Pullout, Abandoned Americans
12:44 GMT 31.08.2021 (Updated: 08:57 GMT 15.11.2022)
© REUTERS / TOM BRENNER
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American troops completed the evacuations of civilians and withdrew from the Kabul Airport on 30 August – a day prior to the deadline set by the Taliban*. The latter came to power in the country earlier this month.
US President Joe Biden's round of applause for ending the country's nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan has been overshadowed by the way the withdrawal from the country was carried out and by the fact that despite boasting fast evacuation rates, Washington apparently failed to get all of the Americans out the country.
U.S. President Joe Biden honors the dignified transfer of the remains of U.S. military service members who were killed by an August 26 suicide bombing at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, U.S., August 29, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
© REUTERS / TOM BRENNER
The shortcomings of the Biden administration regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan have attracted a lot of criticism from opponents. Former POTUS and Biden's rival in the 2020 election, Donald Trump was among the first to comment on the 30 August announcement that the last of the American troops had left Afghanistan, arguing that it couldn't have been done in a more bugled manner. The former president specifically blasted Biden for allowing billions of dollars worth of equipment to fall into the hands of the Taliban and suggested that the military should at least "bomb the hell out of it".
"Never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden Administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan […] Nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible!", Trump said in his statement.
Republican lawmaker Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy Seal who lost his eye in Afghanistan in 2012, lambasted the way the evacuation was organised in the first place. He stressed that there are certain procedures in place that both trigger and regulate the timely and orderly evacuation of Americans from any foreign country, but the Afghanistan withdrawal looked like it didn't have any plan behind it.
"The State Department has been a complete disaster in all of this. There are certain tripwires also that would initiate such procedures. As we understand it, the embassy under this ambassador's leadership just failed to notice and failed to adhere to those procedures […] I think the State Department has a lot to answer for on this", Crenshaw said in an interview with FOX News Radio.
The Republican lawmaker also wondered how the withdrawal order was given in the first place and specifically, why none of Biden's generals tried to object to it. Crenshaw suggested that they could have at least resigned in protest against his actions in Afghanistan.
A protestor holds a placard during a demonstration challenging the transparency of the evacuation process from Kabul Airport, at Lafayette park near the White House in Washington, U.S., August 28, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
© REUTERS / TOM BRENNER
The GOP lawmaker was not alone in questioning the US military regarding the plans to leave Afghanistan. A son of the former president, Donald Trump Jr, recalled the Pentagon's earlier statement saying that it did not anticipate Kabul falling so quickly and without a fight to the Taliban, and wondered how such a scenario was not included in the "plan for every contingency" the Department of Defence was supposed to have.
So you’re saying they did not in fact “plan for every contingency?”
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 30, 2021
Asking for what’s probably thousands of Americans left behind and stranded In Afghanistan as well as tens of thousands of our allies who are in all likelyhood about to be hunted down by ISIS/Taliban squads. https://t.co/HOOb04OtYa
A 30 August report by The Washington Post about the Biden administration purportedly turning down an option that would have allowed the evacuation to be completed in full, only added fuel to the fire. Republican Senator Michael Rulli slammed Biden for reportedly refusing to make a deal with the Taliban for US forces to secure Kabul prior to 15 August to ensure an orderly evacuation via the airport.
Joe Biden was given the opportunity to secure Kabul and get every American citizen in Afghanistan out safely but he CHOSE not to.
— Senator Michael Rulli (@michaelrulli) August 30, 2021
Several politicians, including Republican Senator Ted Cruz and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, skewered Biden for trading a chance to evacuate all willing Americans from Afghanistan and for completing the withdrawal by 31 August – a deadline set by the very Taliban the US has been fighting against for so many years.
Horrific and unacceptable. https://t.co/zSX7At8DQe
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 30, 2021
The Biden Administration was more focused on hitting an arbitrary targeted date rather than hitting the conditions that will permit the execution of the mission that delivers on behalf of America. https://t.co/9Jnf5FA023
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) August 30, 2021
Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie admitted that US troops "were not able" to evacuate every American and Afghan who wanted to leave the country overrun by the Taliban. Donald Trump Jr sarcastically wished "good luck" to the people the Biden administration "left behind", as reports surfaced about the Taliban planning revenge against those locals who helped the NATO forces. The insurgent group itself vowed to pardon everyone who worked with the alliance, including runaway President Ashraf Ghani.
Good luck to the Americans and our friends and allies who were apparently left behind and stranded in Afghanistan by the Biden administration. pic.twitter.com/V4OTkq5DY1
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) August 30, 2021
Retired Navy Rear Admiral and Republican House member Ronny Jackson expressed disbelief at Washington deciding to leave Americans "trapped in Afghanistan" and promised that this act will never be forgotten.
I can't BELIEVE that Biden and his incompetent team are parading around taking a victory lap while WE STILL HAVE AMERICANS TRAPPED IN AFGHANISTAN!! This is ENRAGING! They want us to FORGET about the trapped Americans who will soon be hostages. WE WILL NOT FORGET!
— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) August 30, 2021
Blake Masters, COO of Thiel Capital and potential Republican candidate for the 2022 Senate election in Arizona, in turn, couldn't help but notice the change in the administration's tune regarding the evacuation. He recalled an earlier interview by Joe Biden for ABC News, in which he clearly stated that the US would stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to get all Americans out. Since this didn't happen and the US has withdrawn from the country, Blake Masters concluded that Biden must have changed his mind on the issue.
I guess Biden changed his mind. https://t.co/LcPulgRwPc
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) August 30, 2021
Joe Biden announced the much-criticised Afghanistan withdrawal in May 2021 thus adhering to a peace deal that Donald Trump struck with the terrorist group a year earlier, despite violating the agreement's deadline. POTUS promised to end the almost 20-year war, arguing that the US had achieved the goals set forth in this military intervention and claiming that Washington never said its goal was state-building in Afghanistan.
*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia and in many other countries.
