President Joe Biden gave a recent speech regarding the U.S troops’ withdrawal in Afghanistan, leading Kabul to fall to the Taliban. He has not provided any answers on how he would help get the American people out of Kabul safely and has not spoken with any other world leaders since the fall. He only used his speech to blame Trump and avoid taking responsibility for the decisions. After a few hours of delivering a brief address on the Taliban takeover in Washington D.C, Biden returned to his vacation at Camp David. It’s hard to imagine a more awful speech than this but National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was up for the job.
Sullivan shared that President Biden is “taking responsibility for every decision.” He emphasized how it doesn’t change the fact there are “other political parties here responsible” for taking actions and making the decisions that have to lead us to where we are today. Again, the Biden Administration officials are too busy pointing the blame and avoiding responsibility to give the people any answers about those trying to escape the Taliban. Officials need to acknowledge what they plan to do, not who to blame.
Sullivan went on to admit that the White House does not have a “complete picture” on the location of any American defense equipment abandoned in Afghanistan, but that a fair amount has fallen to the Taliban. This includes heavy weaponry, artillery, armored vehicles, and ammunition. He said they “obviously” don’t have a sense that the Taliban will readily hand it over to U.S officials at the airport.
“The president did not think it was inevitable that the Taliban were going to take control of Afghanistan. He thought the Afghan national security forces could step up and fight because we spent 20 years, tens of billions of dollars, training them, giving them the best equipment, giving them the support of U.S. forces for 20 years. When push came to shove, they decided not to step up and fight for their country,” Sullivan said.
Polls for President Biden’s handling of America’s exit from Afghanistan come is at a whopping 69% disapproval. Sullivan states that the main issue is an “operational issue” in helping get people out. He said they are trying to operate through logistical channels and policy channels to make that happen. He stated that their commitment to allies and partners is “sacrosanct,” as they always have been.
Sullivan has also refused to answer questions on how they plan to get all Americans back safe and sound. Reporter Weijia Jiang asked whether the U.S could ensure that all Americans and Afghan allies are safely evacuated, in which Sullivan said “that’s what we’re doing right now.” He said they’ve asked them all to come to the airport and get on flights to take them home but that he’s not going to “comment on hypotheticals” about getting them all out by Biden’s August 31 deadline.
Sullivan emphasized how he wouldn’t commit to saying they would “bring back every American” and that it was “possible” the Taliban was going to end up in control of Afghanistan. Back on July 8, President Biden clearly stated that a Taliban takeover was “highly unlikely.” Sullivan promised that they will continue to look out for the Afghan women and girls who face the Taliban in their days ahead. However, it’s hard to believe anything Sullivan says if he’s going to continue defending President Biden who has yet to offer a plan to the public.
Understanding the nature of the enemy is the Department of Defense’s job. Sullivan should resign, top intelligence officials should resign, and even Biden should resign for failing to understand terrorists and putting American lives in danger.
