As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan, the Taliban is making rapid gains. The left and right agree the rapid collapse is Biden’s fault.
Summary
With America’s military presence all but ended in the embattled, mountain nation of Afghanistan, the Taliban is quickly taking territory back, including the second and third largest cities in the country.
- Despite a planned complete military withdrawal, the United States is rushing thousands of troops back to Afghanistan to aid in an evacuation of American civilian personnel.
- The Biden administration is insisting “this is not an abandonment” and is trying to reassure the world that “the Taliban will sacrifice any future international legitimacy if it takes power by force.”
- The situation is dire as civilian deaths have surged and “thousands” have fled their homes rather than potentially live under a “repressive regime” run by the Taliban.
- European leaders, whose nations were part of military actions in Afghanistan over the last two decades, are “stunned by how quickly” the nation has fallen to Taliban insurgents and are concerned over the potential for a “new wave of migration” from Afghanistan to Europe.
- The New York Times provided insight on the complicated American response to the Taliban, with American negotiators attempting to get the Taliban to guarantee they won’t ransack the American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.
- An opinion piece in Salon details the lack of support Afghan soldiers have in fighting Taliban insurgents and that even a limited presence of 5,000 American troops in the country was preventing Taliban from making any moves.
- CNN’s national security analyst Peter Bergen laid the blame for the impending collapse of Afghanistan squarely at the feet of President Biden, saying he and the American foreign policy establishment are chasing a fantasy of peace with the Taliban.
- Newsmax interviewed Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, who blasted President Biden, saying the American withdrawal is a “strategic mistake” that will result in “turmoil” in Afghanistan.
- Fox News quoted Mike Pompeo former Secretary of State under President Trump who criticized the Biden administration for poor execution of the withdrawal, leaning on his own experience in negotiations with the Taliban: “there would be stiff and abrupt consequences if any Americans were threatened or hurt going forward.”
- The New York Post editorial board agreed with CNN’s Peter Bergen that the nation’s collapse into repressive Islamist rule is Biden’s fault, calling the administration’s entreaties appealing to the Taliban’s better nature “idiotic.”
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
