4 things to know about Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal report
4. Biden suggests the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was inevitable
The document concluded with a paragraph suggesting that “after more than twenty years, more than $2 trillion dollars, and standing up an Afghan army of 300,000 soldiers, the speed and ease with which the Taliban took control of Afghanistan suggests that there was no scenario—except a permanent and significantly expanded U.S. military presence—that would have changed the trajectory.” In other words, only a prolonged U.S. military presence would ensure that the Taliban never took power in Afghanistan.
Biden highlighted the American fatigue regarding the financial and human costs from the war in Afghanistan when pushing back on the idea that the U.S. should have continued its military presence indefinitely: “When I hear that we could’ve, should’ve continued the so-called low-grade effort in Afghanistan, at low risk to our service members, at low cost, I don’t think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1 percent of this country who put that uniform on, who are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation.”
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul in mid-August of 2021, as the terrorist group advanced throughout the country ahead of the planned departure of U.S. troops. The president of Afghanistan fled the country as the militant group closed in on Kabul.
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Biden offered similar rhetoric about the inevitability of a Taliban takeover in remarks shortly after the capture of Kabul: “The Afghan military collapsed … without trying to fight. If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision. American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”
At the time, the president proclaimed that “there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces” and lamented that the Afghan president “gave up and fled the country.”
On July 8, 2021, however, Biden said the Taliban could not take over the country and overpower the Afghan army.
In response to a reporter who asked whether the Taliban's takeover was inevitable, Biden replied: "No, it is not. ... [T]he 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."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
