Article

2021-08-31 Afghanistan

Wait – the Taliban Offered Control of Kabul to US Forces...And We Turned Them Down?

[Townhall] Well, the fiasco that erupted concerning the safe evacuation of American citizens from Afghanistan could have been much less chaotic. The Washington Post had a lengthy piece Sunday detailing the fall of Kabul. It circles back to everything you already know. The Taliban were racing toward reconquering the country. The Afghan government was totally aloof. And everyone in the Biden orbit was on vacation when calamity hit. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani dithered on getting his act together, more concerned about the digitization of the economy than the Taliban threat. The publication noted that he agreed to step aside days before the Taliban took control of Kabul. The US assumed he would be there to help with the transitional government that included the Taliban. Instead, he fled, but here's the real issue.

Buried mid-way through the piece is the Taliban offering the US to take control of not just the airport but all of Kabul. Chaos was engulfing the city as news of the government's collapse spread. Security was a priority. The Taliban offered the US to take control of the city, and we turned them down (via WaPo):
...
The result of this decision by President Biden & Gen. McKenzie is that Khalil Haqqani—an al Qaeda-linked terrorist with a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head—was placed in charge of security of Kabul.

Posted by Greck Thoque4148 2021-08-31 00:00|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top
File under: Taliban/IEA

#1 When was the last press conference compared to when the Washington Post article came out? Why has nobody asked questions on this?

Posted by ruprecht 2021-08-31 13:30|| 2021-08-31 13:30|| Front Page Top

#2 1. The WaPo today had an editorial (not an op-ed) that was highly critical of Biden.

2. I doubt the US could have controlled Kabul with the 6k troops that were, I think, available at that time. There were hundreds of ISIS prisoners released on Aug 5 or so and these would have tried as much as they could to take out any US troops they saw.

Posted by Lord Garth 2021-08-31 17:37|| 2021-08-31 17:37|| Front Page Top

#3 Taliban didn't know how many defenders were in the city. That most likely assumed we had more or they wouldn't have made the offer. Even a few days probably would have helped.

ISIS prisoners should have been kept until after the last American was out. they could act as hostages for good behavior.

Posted by ruprecht 2021-08-31 17:45|| 2021-08-31 17:45|| Front Page Top

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