The first female combat veteran elected to the U.S. Senate blasted President Joe Biden for the impending collapse of Afghanistan to the Taliban, calling the “rapid and haphazard withdraw of American troops,” before securing the embassy and following other protocols, “shameful.”
“This is a very grim reality, not just for the United States but for so many of our partners around the world to see Afghanistan fall like this. It is all on President Biden’s shoulders,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said on Fox News airwaves, Friday.
“This rapid and haphazard withdrawal of American troops — before we knew that our embassy would be safe, before we had our Afghan interpreters and other friends out of Afghanistan, to allow it to fall like this without any sort of plan or recourse, it is shameful.”
“Again, it is all on President Biden,” the Republican emphasized.
Ernst warned that Taliban control over Afghanistan “could make it possible for Islamic extremist groups to again have a safe haven to ‘reconstitute’ themselves,” Fox noted. She also underscored the risks to women in particular in the area.
“This did not have to happen,” the senator asserted.
Related: U.S. Helicopters Rush In To Evacuate Americans At Embassy In Kabul: ‘This Is Joe Biden’s Saigon’
This past week, the Pentagon announced thousands of troops would be headed back to Afghanistan to evacuate American citizens and Afghan interpreters from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, The Daily Wire reported:
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said three battalions — one from the Army and two from the Marines — will enter Afghanistan over the next 48 hours to assist with security at the Kabul airport and that a brigade of 4,000 Army soldiers was being sent to Kuwait to be on standby if more troops were needed.
“Afghan government forces are collapsing even faster than U.S. military leaders thought possible just a few months ago when President Joe Biden ordered a full withdrawal,” The Associated Press reported. “The Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 until U.S. forces invaded after the 9/11 attacks, captured three more provincial capitals Wednesday and two on Thursday, the 10th and 11th the insurgents have taken in a weeklong sweep that has given them effective control of about two-thirds of the country.”
Notably, as highlighted by The Daily Wire, POTUS said in July that it was “not inevitable” the Taliban would take over Afghanistan as the U.S. publicly withdrawals. “[T]he likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden claimed.
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday released a statement blasting Biden for the debacle in the Middle East:
Joe Biden gets it wrong every time on foreign policy, and many other issues. Everyone knew he couldn’t handle the pressure. Even Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said as much. He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him — a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America. The withdrawal would be guided by facts on the ground.
After I took out ISIS, I established a credible deterrent. That deterrent is now gone. The Taliban no longer has fear or respect for America, or America’s power. What a disgrace it will be when the Taliban raises their flag over America’s Embassy in Kabul. This is complete failure through weakness, incompetence, and total strategic incoherence.
Related: Trump On Afghanistan: Biden ‘Wrong Every Time,’ A ‘Complete Failure Through Weakness, Incompetence’
Related: U.S. Sending 3,000 Troops Back Into Afghanistan Amid Rapidly Deteriorating Situation