President Joe Biden, in conjunction with Vice President Kamala Harris, promised to finally bring an end to America’s longest-ever war in Afghanistan. How they did it remains the subject of much debate, and a recent show of force by the Taliban is bringing that decision back to the forefront.
The rushed exit of Afghanistan by American troops in 2021 included the death of 13 service members at the Baghdad airport when a suicide bomber detonated their vest in a crowd of hundreds scrambling to board the final planes leaving the tarmac. Tragic scenes of locals clinging to the wheels of departing aircraft circulated around the globe, forcing President Biden to defend his reasons for pushing for a hasty departure. Vice President Harris stood by his decisions, previously telling CNN’s Dana Bash that she was the “last person in the room” with Biden as he weighed the pros and cons of a pullout.
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“President Biden always said that he wants you to be the last person in the room, particularly for big decisions just as he was” under former President Barack Obama, Bash stated in a sit-down interview with Harris shortly after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. “Were you the last person in the room?” she asked the veep. “Yes … Yes, I do,” Harris replied when asked if she was “comfortable” with the decision.
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Those words are coming back to haunt Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee after the Taliban were seen parading tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military equipment left behind during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Video released by the terrorist group shows members, faces masked in black, driving fleets of military trucks while Mi-17 helicopters scooped overhead. Users on social media who obtained the video warned that it won’t be many years before the U.S. necessitates another war in the Middle East after the equipment left behind empowers the Taliban or others to commit a mass act of terrorism.
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Historically speaking, they’re correct. During the final years of the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia armed separate camps within the atavistic country. Former presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush chose to side with the Mujahideen, empowering them with an endless supply of anti-aircraft weaponry to shoot Russian aircraft out of the skies. However, America’s departure from Afghanistan created a void that allowed al-Qaeda to thrive, paving the way for Osama bin Laden to mastermind the attacks on 9/11.
Former President Donald Trump has sharply criticized Biden’s decision to withdraw troops so abruptly. “Biden’s botched exit from Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation’s leader, perhaps at any time,” Trump said at the time, adding he felt an exit was necessary but criticizes the way his former opponent went about it. “This is not a withdrawal. This was a total surrender.”
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