[Washington Examiner] President Joe Biden had no "viable option" other than to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, according to a senior State Department official who suggested that former President Donald Trump’s team tied their hands with a flawed agreement with the Taliban.
"It was preordained," State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters while defending the withdrawal. "It’s a deal that this administration probably would not have made, certainly not in all the detail. But it’s the deal that we inherited."
Taliban forces have swept across much of Afghanistan in the months since Biden announced that he would order U.S. troops to leave the country, culminating in the conquest of several provincial capitals since Friday. Allied officials have described Biden’s decision as "shock therapy," but Price suggested that it should have surprised no one, given that the Trump administration struck a deal that called for the withdrawal of American forces by May 1.
"The idea that the United States could have maintained a significant military presence in Afghanistan ... that was just not tenable," Price maintained. "It was not in the cards, because according to that agreement that was negotiated by the United States, not this administration, but the previous one, if our forces remain there in great numbers after May 1, they could have become the targets of violence."
The U.S.-Taliban agreement was negotiated by State Department special representative Zalmay Khalilzad, one of the rare Trump appointees to keep his job when Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken took office. That deal outlined a plan for a two-phase withdrawal of U.S. forces, in exchange for the Taliban’s pledge to cut ties with terrorist groups that threaten the United States and U.S. allies and the launch of peace talks between the militants and the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.
"As intra-Afghan negotiations progress, the United States will watch the Taliban's actions closely to judge whether their efforts towards peace are in good faith," then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper said during a visit to Kabul on the day the agreement was signed. "Should the Taliban fail to honor their commitments, they will forfeit their chance to sit with fellow Afghans and deliberate on the future of their country. Moreover, the United States would not hesitate to nullify the agreement."
Price demurred repeatedly when asked if the Taliban is keeping their end of the bargain — "levels of violence are too high," he repeated throughout the briefing — and argued that the Taliban’s decision not to attack U.S. forces at least vindicates their efforts to broker a deal.
#1
The gaffs don't want us, just our money. The ultimate advance in warfare will be to make sure the warred upon don't see a dime from the events going on around them.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/11/2021 9:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Seem to remember the Socialcrats having a fit as Trump held to his campaign promise and started drawing down troop, while still holding the Islamic Radicals there in check.
#3
This was pre-ordained from the moment we put boots on the ground in Afghanistan.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/11/2021 10:39 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Sec. DOD Austin. "We just couldn't make those n*gger haters understand..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/11/2021 10:57 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Funny that the 4 years of Trump were probably the most stable Middle East in 40 years and it is his fault. I guess it is if the goal is more instability.
#8
President Trump tried, ruprecht. The generals slow-walked it, giggling among themselves about how much smarter they were than OrangeManBad...only to finally get hit with a direct order with a hard deadline, followed by a new president who gave the same order with a slightly delayed deadline.
Trump was the ultimate outsider. Not a member of The Club. And in doing what needed to be done, he was blundering about, breaking rice bowls, and interfering with long-running... let's call them "enterprises". Lucrative enterprises.
Conclusions: Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Washington Examiner] President Joe Biden had no "viable option" other than to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan, according to a senior State Department official who suggested that former President Donald Trump’s team tied their hands with a flawed agreement with the Taliban.
