With Taliban in Kabul, US leaders ask what went wrong in Afghanistan

As the Taliban penetrated Kabul on Sunday, U.S. military and civilian leaders debated how nearly 20 years of efforts to rebuild Afghanistan went so horribly wrong.

Ret. Admiral James Stavridis, who previously led U.S. and NATO forces in the beleaguered country, was one of many to decry the decision to withdraw all troops by the end of this month.

“The misstep both on the part of the Trump administration and on the Biden administration was simply moving too quickly, too abruptly to pull that last tranche of troops out,” he told NPR on Sunday.

Earlier this year, Biden announced the troop withdrawal, saying the U.S. had accomplished its main objectives and couldn’t stay in Afghanistan forever. Former President Donald Trump had also taken steps to pull out of the country.

Amid the withdrawal, the Taliban took over most of the country, entering Kabul on Sunday.

“Once the Taliban saw that we were absolutely determined to leave on dates certain, their calculus changed, and I think that led to the cascade of events here,” Stavridis said.

Biden was at Camp David in Maryland receiving reports on the situation in Afghanistan on Sunday, according to reports.

Pressed on whether the emergency deployment showed the U.S. had pulled out too hastily, Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that wasn’t the case.

“The president was prepared for every contingency as this moved forward. We had those forces on hand and they were able to pull it [off] very quickly,” he told CNN.

Blinken also blamed Afghan troops for the disastrous series of events.

“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country, and that happened more quickly than anticipated,” the secretary of state said, noting the Afghan military has received billions in aid from the U.S. and other countries.

With American troops withdrawing, Afghanistan could become a terrorist haven once again, warned Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).

“Now we have no ability to keep an eye on it,” he told NPR. “It’s quite possible that we end up in Afghanistan some day again because, frankly, it’s going to compel us when you see a resurgent al-Qaida, etc. It’s going to be a disaster.”

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) blamed Biden and Trump for allowing the Taliban takeover.

“The unmitigated disaster in Afghanistan — the shameful, Saigon-like abandonment of Kabul, the brutalization of Afghan women, and the slaughter of our allies — is the predictable outcome of the Trump-Biden doctrine of weakness,” Sasse said in a Sunday statement.

“The looming defeat will badly hurt American intelligence and give jihadis a safe haven in Afghanistan, again. America will regret this. Our allies will trust us less and our adversaries fear us less.”

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