Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban: Biden in need of explanation

For the United States, the Taliban’s victory is a foreign policy disaster. US President Biden in particular has been criticized for the rapid withdrawal of troops and his incorrect assessment of the situation.

At the beginning of July, US President Joe Biden was still certain that it was very unlikely “that the Taliban would overrun all of Afghanistan and take over the country.” But that is exactly what has happened now. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken tried to explain in several interviews over the weekend how his boss could be so wrong and blamed the Afghans themselves. “The fact is that the Afghan armed forces could not defend the country. And that actually happened faster than expected “, so blinking on CNN.

Blinken rejected the accusation that Biden had completely wrongly assessed the situation on site in the past few months. On the contrary: The fact that the USA was able to increase its troops so quickly – to up to 6,000 and thus more than twice as many as at the beginning of the withdrawal – is evidence of how well the president was prepared for all eventualities be.

“This is not Saigon,” said the foreign minister. Because, unlike in Vietnam, the mission in Afghanistan was a success because the US had achieved its goal: to bring down the masterminds of the September 11, 2001 attacks and to ensure that no further attacks are planned from Afghanistan.

Pompeo: Biden failed completely

For the Biden government, the end of the war in Afghanistan threatens to turn into a foreign policy disaster: Because now, after 20 years, more than 2500 dead US soldiers and countless civilian victims on the ground, the same radical Islamists are coming to power again before 9/11.

Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News that Biden had failed completely in Afghanistan. The chief diplomat of the era Trump rejected any joint responsibility: He is still proud of the agreement that he concluded with the Taliban in spring 2020 and in which the complete withdrawal of the Americans was agreed. That the Biden administration is now blaming him and ex-President Donald Trump is ridiculous if the situation weren’t so risky: “I wouldn’t even let my 10-year-old son get away with such a ridiculous way of shifting responsibility. “

“Guaranteed to fail”

But even some Republicans blame both the old and the new US administration: the disaster began when Trump started negotiating with the Taliban. And it now ends with Biden’s surrender, said MP Liz Cheney on Twitter. She is the daughter of the ex-vice president who helped instigate the long war in Afghanistan.

Democrat Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense under Barack Obama, admitted on CNN that the US operation in Afghanistan was doomed from the start: “We have never understood the culture, the religion, the tribal system and history. And when we did if you don’t, you are doomed. “

Worry about terrorists

Regardless of whether they are Democrats or Republicans: US politics is now primarily concerned with one concern: that Afghanistan, after two decades of war, could become a breeding ground for terrorist organizations again.