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Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday compared the Taliban’s reconquest of Afghanistan to the CIA-backed Cuba invasion of the Bay of Pigs in the early 1960s, adding that the collapse of the government supported by the West in Kabul had damaged America’s credibility.
“It’s a situation that has deteriorated rapidly, beyond anyone’s imagination,” Panetta, former CIA director under Barack Obama and former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton told CNN. . “Nobody expected what happened. No one expected the Taliban to act as quickly as they did. They obviously had a strategy to do it… and we didn’t know how quickly it would happen. “
The Taliban entered the Afghan capital on Sunday, causing chaos at the city’s international airport as those desperate to escape the return of the fundamentalist Islamic regime flooded the tarmac in hopes of catching a plane. . Some of them clung to the outside of departing US military planes, falling to their deaths as the plane soared into the sky.
As recently as last week, US intelligence officials disclosed to the media that the fall of the government led by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani could occur within 60 or 90 days. In fact, the country’s four largest cities fell to the Taliban in a 96-hour period, completing a cataclysmic collapse just over two weeks before the official deadline for US combat forces to leave the country.
On Monday, Panetta admitted that when it comes to the precarious nature of the Afghan security forces and the strength of the Taliban offensive, the US intelligence community “missed it.”
“They missed what was going on. They missed the fact that the Taliban was obviously preparing for this strategy. Once the United States withdrew its forces, they knew they could take advantage of it, and I think the intelligence community understood that, but they didn’t understand how ready the Taliban was to lead the genre. campaign they have waged in recent days. , “he added.” They captured 12 provincial capitals in a matter of days. It’s amazing. “
In remarks Monday afternoon in the East Room of the White House, Biden blamed most of the blame for the fall of Afghanistan on his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, and on military leaders and Afghan politicians. The president also acknowledged that the collapse had happened “faster than we expected” and echoed the slogan of another Democratic president, Harry Truman, saying: “I am the president of the United States. America, and the responsibility ends with me. “
“In many ways I think of John Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs, you know? said Panetta, who was interviewed hours before Biden’s statement. “It went quickly and the president thought everything was going to be fine and it wasn’t. But President Kennedy has taken responsibility for what happened, and I strongly recommend that President Biden take responsibility. [and] admit the mistakes that were made.
“He needs to make the American people understand that as Commander-in-Chief, he will continue to protect our national security and that we will pursue terrorists wherever they are,” Panetta continued. “He just needs to make sure that the United States of America remains a strong world leader who can work with our allies to try to protect peace and prosperity. This is the message he must send to the American people and to the world, because our credibility is currently in question. “
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