Post by robeiae on Aug 18, 2021 8:31:26 GMT -5
But this is true: www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/opinions/afghanistan-us-withdrawal-biden-bergen/index.html
Biden is going to own this shambles of a withdrawal, there's little he can do about it. All he can say--at this point--is that he thought the US needed to get out of there, that it should have happened ages ago, and that it sucks it all fell apart like it did.
President Joe Biden claimed in his speech to the nation on Monday that he was bound by the Trump administration's agreement with the Taliban to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan. However, there are multiple flaws with this argument.
First, the Taliban never observed the terms of that agreement, including that they would break ties with al-Qaeda. According to a UN report released earlier this year, they didn't.
Second, the agreement said that the Taliban would enter genuine peace negotiations with the Afghan government. That didn't happen either.
Third, the US-Taliban agreement was negotiated without any input from the Afghan government -- which, after all, was the elected government of the country. Conveniently for the Taliban, they don't believe in elections.
So, the Biden administration felt bound to an agreement made by the previous administration with an insurgent group that had excluded the actual government of Afghanistan.
[snip]
What the administration has done in Afghanistan doesn't make much sense. Biden could have easily said the Taliban had reneged on their agreement with the United States so he could continue to keep a relatively small US military force in Afghanistan to advise and assist the Afghan Army and to support the Afghan Air Force to thwart Taliban advances.
First, the Taliban never observed the terms of that agreement, including that they would break ties with al-Qaeda. According to a UN report released earlier this year, they didn't.
Second, the agreement said that the Taliban would enter genuine peace negotiations with the Afghan government. That didn't happen either.
Third, the US-Taliban agreement was negotiated without any input from the Afghan government -- which, after all, was the elected government of the country. Conveniently for the Taliban, they don't believe in elections.
So, the Biden administration felt bound to an agreement made by the previous administration with an insurgent group that had excluded the actual government of Afghanistan.
[snip]
What the administration has done in Afghanistan doesn't make much sense. Biden could have easily said the Taliban had reneged on their agreement with the United States so he could continue to keep a relatively small US military force in Afghanistan to advise and assist the Afghan Army and to support the Afghan Air Force to thwart Taliban advances.
Biden is going to own this shambles of a withdrawal, there's little he can do about it. All he can say--at this point--is that he thought the US needed to get out of there, that it should have happened ages ago, and that it sucks it all fell apart like it did.