On August 15, 2021, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban — a terrorist group that provided shelter to Al-Qaeda following 9/11.
Days after the American military pulled its troops from the country, the Taliban conquered several provinces and the capital city of Kabul. American-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani resigned his post and fled the country on Sunday.
The resulting chaos — including the United States military’s evacuation of citizens from the Kabul airport — triggered widespread backlash in conservative circles. Whether isolationist or interventionist, virtually all agree that President Biden and the Pentagon badly mishandled the American exit from Afghanistan.
It’s important to understand that this failure didn’t occur in a vacuum. Here are five times the Biden administration was completely wrong about the Afghanistan conflict.
Lauding the Afghan military
As recently as last month, President Biden expressed his confidence in the Afghan military’s ability to fend off the Taliban after the American military’s exit.
“Together, with our NATO Allies and partners, we have trained and equipped… nearly 300,000 current serving members of the military of the Afghan National Security Force, and many beyond that who are no longer serving,” explained Biden during a July 8 press conference. “Add to that, hundreds of thousands more Afghan National Defense and Security Forces trained over the last two decades.”
36 days ago, President Biden told the American people that the Taliban would not take over #Afghanistan after he ordered the removal of U.S. troops. pic.twitter.com/FiG5pWsyey
— POLARIS (@polarisnatsec) August 13, 2021
One journalist then asked Biden: “Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?”
“No, it is not,” replied the Commander-in-Chief. “The Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped — as well-equipped as any army in the world — and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable.”
However, many provincial capitals fell with little to no resistance. Kandahar — Afghanistan’s second-largest city — was lost after Afghan commanders reportedly told soldiers to not “fire a single shot,” as the Taliban would kill them if they offered any resistance.
Affirming a safe exit from Afghanistan
In April, President Biden promised that the American departure from Afghanistan would be carried out with care.
“We will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit,” he assured the public in April. “We’ll do it responsibly, deliberately, and safely. And we will do it in full coordination with our allies and partners, who now have more forces in Afghanistan than we do.”
“And the Taliban should know that if they attack us as we draw down, we will defend ourselves and our partners with all the tools at our disposal,” he added.
Instead, the departure required an emergency evacuation of America’s embassy in Kabul — which provoked many comparisons to the retreat from Saigon in 1975.
This footage will still be played in 100 years. It now joins images of the retreat from Saigon and the naked Vietnamese girl as one of the west’s most shameful moments in modern history. pic.twitter.com/kcGLKLs5yG
— David Patrikarakos (@dpatrikarakos) August 16, 2021
In a conversation with CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to debunk comparison between the end of the Afghanistan war and the end of the Vietnam war.
“This is manifestly not Saigon,” Blinken said. “The compound itself, our folks are leaving there, and moving to the airport.”
Promising the embassy will stay
Blinken promised earlier this summer that the United States government would continue operating in Afghanistan.
“We are not withdrawing, we are staying, the embassy is staying, our programs are staying,” he asserted. “If there is a significant deterioration in security… I don’t think it’s going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday.”
Blinken was then pressed on his assertion by NBC News anchor Chuck Todd.
“First, we’ve known all along that the Taliban was at its strongest position in terms of its strength since 2001,” Blinken responded. “When we came to office, that was the fact. And we said all along — including back then — that the Taliban would make significant gains throughout Afghanistan.”
Secy of State Blinken responds to this clip: pic.twitter.com/6OMCg2k0lq
— Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) August 15, 2021
Blinken also placed blame at the feet of the Afghan military.
“But on the other hand, I have to tell you that the inability of Afghan security forces to defend their country has played a very powerful role in what we’ve seen over the last few weeks,” he continued. “The fact is, we invested — the international community invested — over twenty years, billions of dollars in these forces — 300,000 of them — with an air force, something the Taliban didn’t have, with the most modern, sophisticated equipment.”
“And unfortunately — tragically — they have not been able to defend the country, and I think that explains why this has moved as quickly as it’s moved.”
Ignoring intelligence reports
The Biden administration allegedly neglected to consider American intelligence reports.
One anonymous intelligence official told ABC News that “no one listened” to warnings that “it would take no time at all for the Taliban to take everything.” A senior congressional official told the outlet that “the intelligence community assessment has always been accurate; they just disregarded it.”
Likewise, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) — the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs — affirmed that the intelligence briefing he received before the withdrawal was “probably the grimmest assessment I’ve ever heard on Afghanistan.” He called Biden’s execution of the withdrawal an “unmitigated disaster of epic proportions.”
“We think it’s going to be worse than Saigon,” McCaul said about a conversation with former American ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker. “When they raise the black flag of the Taliban over the United States embassy, think of that visual.”
Strengthening leadership in the world
President Biden vowed during his candidacy to restore respect for the United States abroad.
“Joe Biden laid out his foreign policy vision for America to restore dignified leadership at home and respected leadership on the world stage,” read his campaign platform. “Arguing that our policies at home and abroad are deeply connected, Joe Biden announced that, as president, he will… once more place America at the head of the table, leading the world to address the most urgent global challenges.”
However, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan led many adversaries to openly mock the United States.
The Global Times — a Chinese newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship People’s Daily newspaper — told Taiwan that the United States will buckle if the island is invaded.
“The US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan has led to the rapid demise of the Kabul government,” said the outlet. “The world has witnessed how the US evacuated its diplomats by helicopter while Taliban soldiers crowded into the presidential palace in Kabul. This has dealt a heavy blow to the credibility and reliability of the US.”
“The situation in Afghanistan suddenly saw a radical change after the country was abandoned by the US. And Washington just left despite the worsening situation in Kabul. Is this some kind of omen of Taiwan’s future fate?”
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.