Joe Biden team surprised by rapid Taliban gains in Afghanistan

President Joe Biden and other top US officials were stunned on Sunday by the pace of the Talibans nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan as the planned withdrawal of American forces urgently became a mission to ensure a safe evacuationThe speed of the Afghan governments collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief and he was the subject of withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failedBiden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20year war a conflict that demonstrated the limits of money and military might to force a Westernstyle democracy on a society not ready or willing to embrace itAfter 20 years we are back in the 2000s We want peace If the Taliban takes over there will be thousands of other Osama Bin Ladens thousands of Mullah Omars amp they will unite with Pakistan and go all over Central Asia Hamdarf Gafoori former Afghan journalist pictwittercomQHE9oNHsc5mdash ANI ANI August 16 2021By Sunday though leading figures in the administration acknowledged they were caught off guard with the utter speed of the collapse of Afghan security forces The challenge of that effort became clear after reports of sporadic gunfire at the Kabul airport prompted Americans to shelter as they awaited flights to safetyAlso read US President Joe Biden increases troops deployment to AfghanistanWeve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN referring to the Afghan militaryThe turmoil in Afghanistan resets the focus in an unwelcome way for a president who has largely focused on a domestic agenda that includes emerging from the pandemic winning congressional approval for trillions of dollars in infrastructure spending and protecting voting rightsBiden remained at Camp David on Sunday receiving regular briefings on Afghanistan and holding secure video conference calls with members of his national security team according to senior White House officials The next several days could be critical in determining whether the US is able to regain some level of control over the situationDiscussions were underway for Biden to speak publicly according to two senior administration officials who requested anonymity to discuss internal conversationsBiden who is scheduled to remain at Camp David through Wednesday is expected to return to the White House if he decides to deliver an addressBiden is the fourth US president to confront challenges in Afghanistan and has insisted he wouldnt hand Americas longest war to his successor But the president will likely have to explain how security in Afghanistan unravelled so quickly especially since he and others in the administration have insisted it wouldnt happenThe jury is still out but the likelihood theres going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely Biden said on July 8 As recently as last week Biden publicly expressed hope that Afghan forces could develop the will to defend their countryBut privately administration officials warned that the military was crumbling prompting Biden on Thursday to order thousands of American troops into the region to speed up evacuation plansOne official said Biden was more sanguine on projections for the Afghan fighters to hold off the Taliban in part to prevent a further erosion in morale among their force It was ultimately for naughtPresidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump also yearned to leave Afghanistan but ultimately stood down in the face of resistance from military leaders and other political concerns Biden on the other hand has been steadfast in his refusal to change the August 31 deadline in part because of his belief that the American public is on his sideA late July ABC NewsIpsos poll for instance showed 55 per cent of Americans approving of Bidens handling of the troop withdrawal Most Republicans have not pushed Biden to keep troops in Afghanistan over the long term and they also supported Trumps own push to exit the countryStill some in the GOP are stepping up their critique of Bidens withdrawal strategy and said images from Sunday of American helicopters circling the US Embassy in Kabul evoked the humiliating departure of US personnel from VietnamSenate Republican leader Mitch McConnell deemed the scenes of withdrawal as the embarrassment of a superpower laid low Meanwhile US officials are increasingly concerned about the potential for the rise in terrorist threats against the US as the situation in Afghanistan devolves according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matterGen Mark Milley the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told senators on a briefing call Sunday that US officials are expected to alter their earlier assessments about the pace of terrorist groups reconstituting in Afghanistan the person saidBased on the evolving situation officials believe terror groups like alQaida may be able to grow much faster than expected The officials on the call told senators that the US intelligence community is currently working on forming a new timeline based on the evolving threatsStill there were no additional steps planned beyond the troop deployment Biden ordered to assist in the evacuations Senior administration officials believe the US will be able to maintain security at the Kabul airport long enough to extricate Americans and their allies but the fate of those unable to get to the airport was far from certainSen Chris Murphy DConn a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has backed the Biden administrations strategy said in an interview that the speed is a surprise but would not characterize the situation as an intelligence failure He said it has long been known that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban if the United States pulled outGiven how much we have invested in the Afghan army its not ridiculous for analysts to believe that theyd be able to put up a fight for more than a few days Murphy said You want to believe that trillions of dollars and 20 years of investment adds up to something even if it doesnt add up for the ability to defend the country in the long runIn the upper ranks of Bidens staff the rapid collapse in Afghanistan only confirmed the decision to leave If the meltdown of the Afghan forces would come so quickly after nearly two decades of American presence another six months or a year or two or more would not have changed anythingBiden has argued for more than a decade that Afghanistan was a kind of purgatory for the United States He found it to be corrupt addicted to Americas largesse and an unreliable partner that should be made to fend for itselfHis goal was to protect Americans from terrorist attacks not building a country As vice president he argued privately against Obamas surge of 30000 troops into Afghanistan in a bid to stabilize the country so that the United States and its allies could then pull back their forcesAs president Biden said in July that he made the decision to withdraw with clear eyes after receiving daily battlefield updates His judgment was that Afghanistan would be divided in a peace agreement with the Taliban rather than falling all at onceWhile Biden has prided himself on delivering plain truths to the American public his bullish assessment of the situation just a month ago could come back to haunt himTheres going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the of the United States from Afghanistan he said in July The likelihood theres going to be one unified government in Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikely