Biden finally addresses the nation on Afghanistan withdrawal chaos. Speaking from the White House stood behind his decision to pull the troops out. He also stated that they miscalculated how fast the country would fall. President Biden also said he takes responsibility for the withdrawal but did not mention the chaos.
During his speech Biden took “responsibility” for the withdrawal but did not mention the chaos over the past week. Mostly he spoke of how long the U.S. has been there and it was time to leave. Repeatedly he stated this. Reading from the teleprompter in a well crafted speech he laid blame for the chaos on everyone and anyone except his administration. Well to be fair, he was on vacation so I imagine he was annoyed that he had to come back to DC to address the issue.
The blame game.
President Biden laid blame for the fall of Afghanistan to the previous administrations, with nothing to back it up. Of course he blamed former President Trump for the deal he made with the Taliban. Missing from that was the context of the deal Trump made. Trump basically said, you should try to integrate into the govt, however if you start some shit you will be obliterated. Then Biden proceeded to blame the Afghan govt and military for the lightening speed fall of the country.
Biden addressed the Afghan military’s failure to put up any fight or resistance. The military and security forces seemed to run at the first sign of trouble. First of all, it is clear the Biden administration did not understand Afghanistan at all. This is a country that will never be able to self govern. Tribal differences are too great and Afghan politicians seem more interested in making money for themselves.
20 years is a long time to be in active combat for any nation. I do understand that it has to come to an end at some point. President Biden apparently missed the point of the outrage over the last few days. The outrage was not about leaving, but how we left. The plan seemed half assed if there really was a plan. What people wanted to see was the Afghan people that assisted (translators, workers etc) able to get out. They will most certainly face reprisals for their work with the U.S. This haphazard pullout forced our partner nations to scramble to get their own people out, which of course they were not happy about.
Time will tell how everything will play out. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Afghan people that they are able to get out if they need to. Ideally I would like to see people rise up and take their country back. That is a pipe dream sadly.
