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With time, the flawed American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan revealed a series of mistakes and some lies by President Joe Biden that called into question his credibility, especially due to contradictions on the subject that went around the world.
A year after the decision to withdraw the troops and the improvisation that was evident, we recall the mistakes, contradictions, and lies that today make the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan be considered a “failed mission.”
Biden asked to manipulate “the perception” of what was happening in Afghanistan
A Reuters news agency report revealed that on July 23, 2021, Biden called then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, whom he pressured to hide the truth: the Taliban were advancing mercilessly, and things were not going well as he tried to pretend.
In a press conference for the U.S. and the world, Biden said he didn’t believe the Taliban would seize power from Kabul so quickly, but the Reuters report reveals that the president knew the outlook was negative and that “in terms of the fight against the Taliban, things are not going well.”
According to a transcript of the presidential call reviewed by Reuters, Biden spent 14 minutes on the Afghan government’s “perception” problem.
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture,” the president emphasized.
Biden evaded Ashraf Ghani’s pleas to defend Kabul
Biden’s controversial call not only reveals that he tried to impose a misperception of what was going on, but also ignored the then-Afghan president’s requests and warned that the situation could spiral out of control.
“Mr. President, we are facing a full-scale invasion, composed of Taliban, full Pakistani planning and logistical support, and at least 10-15,000 international terrorist.” Ghani pleaded for U.S. air support.
The facts in Afghanistan, which are now a reality and not a perception, have evidenced at least 6 lies by the American president.
A report by The New York Post reveals how the U.S. president is said to have misled the population regarding the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.
Biden lied to the U.S. about evacuating Americans and collaborators from Afghanistan
On August 19 last year, Biden promised that if there were any American citizens left in Afghanistan after the withdrawal deadline, they would stay “until they were all out.”
However, that was not what happened. Biden later admitted that there were still Americans in Afghanistan waiting to be evacuated.
The president also went so far as to point out that they were making the same efforts to help Afghan collaborators who worked for the U.S. for years, but a senior State Department official told NBC News that “most of the Afghans who helped” the U.S. “didn’t make it out of Kabul.”
Biden concealed an alliance with the Taliban
In addition to all this, the U.S. president did not inform that there was a coordination with the Taliban, to the point of giving them a list of citizens who were in Afghanistan so that they would allow their departure from Kabul.
This would not be the only alliance, as it was known that it is “possible” that the United States was seeking to coordinate with the Taliban to carry out attacks in Afghanistan against fighters of the Islamic State.
Biden contradicted Military High Command
Testimony from senior military officials contradicted President Biden regarding troop withdrawals in Afghanistan. In congressional testimony, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and U.S. Central Command Chief General Kenneth McKenzie said they recommended to Biden to maintain the presence of some 2,500 troops in the country.
In an interview for ABC, Biden said in August that nobody suggested him to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. “No. No one said that to me that I can recall,” the president told journalist George Stephanopoulos. However, on Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, both Milley and McKenzie denied it, saying they recommended Biden keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
An American arsenal left in the hands of the Taliban
With the drastic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Joe Biden’s administration not only allowed the Taliban to return to power, but also gave them a free hand to control American weapons of war and access to “secret technology” of the U.S. Armed Forces.
For 20 years, the United States helped equip with modern weaponry an Afghan army that was to serve to defend the government, but ended up falling into the hands of the radical Taliban.
In videos uploaded to social networks by the Taliban themselves, it can be seen how they seized at least two Black Hawk helicopters painted in the colors of the Afghan Air Force: each of the aircraft is valued at 25 million dollars.
In addition to the helicopters, the Taliban now have in their possession armored multipurpose vehicles such as the Humvee, the MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected), the M1117 All Terrain, and the M113 Armored.
U.S. allies were abandoned
The Biden Administration promised thousands of Afghan families that they would be kept together. However, after a year of waiting and uncertainty, it appears that this was an empty promise.
A Washington Post report revealed that the Democratic administration brought more than 76,000 Afghans to the United States, and many of them still have immediate family members in their home country who are unable to escape.
Although the federal government had assured that one of its main priorities is to achieve the reunification of these families, neither the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, nor the Pentagon, have data on how many Afghans are in the country, how many are still waiting to be evacuated and how many are part of these separated families. According to the Post, “the number could extend into the tens of thousands.”
The Washington Post report reveals stories of separated families still waiting to be reunited. These are mothers who made it to the United States with one or two children, but were forced to leave other children and their husbands behind in Afghanistan.
According to the Post, many separated Afghans and their lawyers report that every time they ask for help about reunification, the response they get is that their “notification has been put on a list.”
Thousands of refugees entering the U.S. were not properly checked
“Almost none of the 82,000 people airlifted from Kabul” were vetted before entering the United States.
Sources familiar with the refugee interviews claim that the Biden administration violated U.S. government policies for handling refugees.
Last Aug. 22, 2021, Biden promised that anyone entering the U.S. after the withdrawal of American troops would be screened.
“Planes taking off from Kabul are not flying directly to the United States. They’re landing at U.S. military bases and transit centers around the world. At these sites where they are landing, we are conducting thorough scrutiny — security screenings for everyone who is not a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident,” he said.
However, a Washington Examiner report revealed that the administration failed to vet the people it brought in from Afghanistan. “The Biden administration failed to vet the information that tens of thousands of Afghans provided through in-person interviews and relied solely on criminal and terrorist databases to flag bad actors, according to the memo — that is, merely screening, rather than vetting, people brought to the U.S.,” the report said.
“The large majority of people, approximately 75%, evacuated were not American citizens, green card holders, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders, or applicants for the visa,” according to the Washington Examiner. In short, while Biden was transporting people from Kabul who were not qualified, he was leaving behind hundreds who did deserve it.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo