Congress’s top two Republicans decried President Joe Biden’s “reckless” and “botched” strategy in Afghanistan as Taliban forces advance ahead of the full U.S. military withdrawal.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged the commander in chief to commit more military support to aid the besieged nation, where U.S. forces have been eminently present for 20 years, and said Afghanistan is “careening toward a massive, predictable, and preventable disaster” as Biden begins to oversee the conclusion of the U.S. military’s operation in the country.
Recommended Stories
“The Biden Administration has reduced U.S. officials to pleading with Islamic extremists to spare our Embassy as they prepare to overrun Kabul,” McConnell said in a statement Thursday. “Absurdly, naively, our government is arguing that bloodshed might hurt the Taliban’s international reputation, as if radical terrorists are anxious about their P.R.”
‘THEY ARE SITTING IN THE SAME ROOM NOW’: US TOUTS PEACE TALKS AS TALIBAN OFFENSIVE CONTINUES
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy implied that the Biden administration is letting down all the service members who “bravely fought to protect our national interests abroad” during the decadeslong war.
“It should have been the government’s responsibility to execute a responsible exit as we withdrew the remaining forces from the country,” McCarthy said Friday. “But in a matter of months, the Biden administration has led a botched withdrawal process that has now predictably handed an entire country over to terrorists.”
Taliban forces have made significant advances in recent weeks, overtaking multiple provincial capitals and causing worry that the Afghan government could eventually be toppled.
The State Department announced on Thursday the deployment of 3,000 U.S. troops to Kabul to assist in the drawdown of U.S. diplomats, a move that McConnell considered a warning.
“The latest news of a further drawdown at our Embassy and a hasty deployment of military forces seem like preparations for the fall of Kabul,” he said. “President Biden’s decisions have us hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975,” McConnell added, referring to the end of the Vietnam War.
McConnell urged Biden to “commit to providing more support to Afghan forces, starting with close air support beyond August 31st.”
“Without it, al Qaeda and the Taliban may celebrate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by burning down our Embassy in Kabul,” he said. “If we let the Taliban dominate Afghanistan and al Qaeda return, it will resonate throughout the global jihadist movement.”
McCarthy did not urge more military support but said Biden “must immediately focus all efforts on making sure there is a plan to safely extract all American service members and civilians still remaining in Afghanistan.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“He also owes the American public an answer on what he plans to do to make sure the region doesn’t turn into a breeding ground for more violent extremism that will lead to large-scale global attacks of terrorism,” the House minority leader added.
The Biden administration has defended its Afghanistan strategy amid Taliban advancement, arguing peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have come a long way and that Kabul has to assert a stronger will if it seeks to maintain control.
