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All day Sunday, the White House weathered a storm of criticism – rushing Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday cable broadcasts in an attempt to limit the damage. Then Blinken, Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley briefed Hill lawmakers, some of whom denounced what they called the Biden administration’s lack of preparedness. Overwhelmed by appeals from those trying to leave the country safely and the need for expedited visas, the Pentagon announced an emergency deployment of additional troops, soon to total 6,000 on the ground in Afghanistan.
Heartbreaking footage of desperate Afghans trying to board flights from Kabul airport flooded social media, as Taliban militants broadcast live from the presidential palace amid reports of Al-Qaeda and other extremist prisoners escaping from government facilities.
“The White House was clearly caught off guard and unprepared for the speed of the collapse of Afghanistan. Even Biden’s allies won’t try to claim this as a job well done or say it’s what they planned. After all, no one would have planned for a last minute evacuation which was organized out of necessity, ”said Brian Klaas, political analyst and democracy expert who now teaches at University College London.
For months, Biden’s advisers had played down the likely political impact of the US exit, pointing out that polls showed voters were tired of the war and just wanted to bring the troops home. And they noted that it was Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump who approved the peace deal with the Taliban during his last year in office.
It is the execution of the withdrawal policy, however, that is under attack – a particular failure given that it occurred under a president who, since the presidential primary, has boasted of standing out from the pack in because of his four decades in the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and his time. on the world stage as vice president.
“Whether the policy is good or bad,” Klaas said, “the execution was clearly botched.”
This sentiment was echoed by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), A Marine who has toured Iraq four times. “The time to debate whether we stay in Afghanistan is over, but there is still time to debate how we manage our retirement,” Moulton said in a long statement on Sunday. “For months, I have called on the administration to evacuate our allies immediately,” he continued. “The fact that at this time we have not even secured the civilian half of Kabul airport testifies to our moral and operational failure.
The end of America’s longest war was supposed to go smoothly. But the chaotic U.S. departure from Kabul suggests Biden will forever own what is arguably a humiliating coda for a doomed nation-building effort that began shortly after 9/11 and will soon end. long before the 20th anniversary of this tragedy.
Perhaps the most damning moment for Biden was his own words at a July 8 press conference, when he explicitly stated that there would be no parallel between the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Fall of Saigon, when military helicopters participated in an emergency evacuation in the last days of the Vietnam War.
“There will be no circumstance where you will see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy,” Biden said at the time. “It’s not at all comparable.”
The entire episode struck Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), A Vietnamese refugee whose parents fled the war-torn country by boat as a baby. Murphy said his heart was breaking for those struggling to leave Afghanistan and expressed his disappointment with the way the United States was leaving.
“I also worked in the Ministry of Defense, I know what a planned withdrawal looks like. I know what an orderly departure looks like. I’m disappointed that this is the way we are withdrawing, ”Murphy said in an interview on Sunday. Murphy participated in the call for lawmakers with Blinken, Austin and Milley, observing, “I think General Milley’s silence on the White House call when asked about the ‘how’ reflects that. , he gave his best military advice and it was ignored by politicians.
The White House said little on Sunday as the crisis unfolded on live television. He said Biden met Vice President Kamala Harris and his national security team in a video conference in the morning. Highlighting the feeling that the United States was taken by surprise, the White House then released a photo of Biden as he retired to Camp David, staring thoughtfully at officials on a monitor, surrounded by empty seats.
Biden plans to stay at Camp David on Monday, according to his White House schedule.
Biden released a lengthy statement on Saturday, ahead of the fall of Kabul, setting out five points of action in response to the swift takeover, including communicating to Taliban officials that the United States would promptly respond to any act endangering the government. American staff.
Biden blamed part of the blame for the collapse of Afghanistan on the Trump administration, saying he inherited a situation in which troops had been reduced to just 2,500. The president also pointed out that ‘he did not want to pass this “eternal war” on to a fifth president.
“The question is, did the Biden administration perform in the best possible way, given the circumstances given to them?” Murphy asked. “I think this question is for the history books.”
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