* A U.S. watchdog has issued a withering report on how the Biden and Trump administrations triggered the collapse of Afghan security forces last year
* The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said the collapse was predictable after years of mismanagement
* John Sopko said the Trump administration's deal with the Taliban to exit and Biden's insistence on executing it were to blame for the swift collapse
* The Taliban swept into Kabul in August last year as Afghan forces melted away
* Biden blamed Afghan troops for the capitulation
The biggest factors in the rapid collapse of Afghanistan's armed forces were the Trump administration's deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops and contractors from the country followed by Joe Biden's announcement that he was pulling out all U.S. troops, according to a scathing watchdog report.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (S.I.G.A.R) found that Afghan forces had been built to reply on U.S. air power as well as contractors to maintain sophisticated weaponry.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This report (link here) is an example of Washington rewriting history.
President Trump and the Taliban reached an understanding at the beginning of 2020 that the US will withdraw from Afghanistan if certain conditions were met. After this agreement, the military situation was stable and the Taliban were honoring their commitments up to the time when President Trump left office at the end of January 2021. It was well understood by everyone during this period that if the Taliban did not honor their commitments and negotiated with the Ghani government in good faith, US and allied forces were not going to leave.
This all changed with the Biden administration, who interpreted the Trump administration's deal with the Taliban as non-negotiable, and that all US forces and contractors must leave regardless of what was the situation on the ground. The disaster that then occurred was predictable, and the Afghans have been suffering terribly ever since.
Bottom line.
President Biden's desire to leave Afghanistan on September 11, and his refusal to listen to his military commanders, intelligence officials, Afghan officials, and NATO allies who pleaded with the White House to stay to stabilize the security situation .... this is what precipitated the quick collapse of the Afghan military and the subsequent catastrophic withdrawal of US and allied forces from Afghanistan in August of 2021.
One more interesting historical note.
When the Soviet Union left Afghanistan the Afghan government at the time was able to maintain security over the country even though the Mujaheddin/Taliban were active. The Kabul government was able to do this for three years, but when the Soviet Union fell apart the fuel that the Afghan military was dependent on at the time was cut-off. This inability to travel quickly resulted in the collapse of the government within months. Ditto in 2021. When US contractors left the Afghan helicopter fleet and air force became useless, and the means for the Afghan military to respond to Taliban attacks quickly diminished. The same fate happened.
Sighhh ... history does not repeat itself exactly, but it often rhymes.
U.S. Report Blames Trump And Biden For The Collapse Of Afghanistan To The Taliban
US withdrawal triggered catastrophic defeat of Afghan forces, damning watchdog report finds -- The Guardian
‘A red light blinking’: Watchdog thrashes Trump, Biden administrations for Afghanistan failures -- Politico
Suspicion consumed Afghan officials just before Taliban takeover: watchdog -- The Hill
U.S.-Taliban deal biggest factor in collapse of Afghan forces, watchdog says -- Reuters
Afghanistan's swift surrender to the Taliban was due to Biden's withdrawal of American troops, watchdog says -- FOX News
US-Taliban Deal Pushed Afghanistan to Collapse: Watchdog -- Bloomberg
Watchdog: U.S. withdrawal mainly to blame for collapse of Afghan gov't -- UPI
from War News Updates https://ift.tt/ZvFoznp
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment