Biden’s Mistakes in Afghanistan Cleary Responsible for Attacks and Loss of American Lives!
A former Trump counterterrorism official says that there is only one person responsible for the bombing in Afghanistan that took the lives of American Troops – and that person is President Joe Biden.
Nathan Sales, the former ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism under President Trump, told Fox News in an exclusive interview that Biden’s “most important misstep” was the decision to leave the Bagram Air Base, which is more remote and in a better location to aid evacuation efforts.
“One of the most important and mistaken decisions that President Biden made was to withdraw from Bagram Air Base. Bagram Air Base is 30 or so miles north of the capital. It was a military facility. It was indeed the heart of American counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan for years. It would have been a far better alternative for carrying out the evacuation that is now going on,” Sales said.
Sales, a Vandenberg Coalition Advisory Board member, said that the base would have been “far better” for American evacuation efforts because it is remote, far from population centers, and easier to defend and control access. Kabul’s airport, on the other hand, is more dangerous and susceptible to attacks due to its location in the heart of the densely packed city center, surrounded by hotels, buildings, and crowds of people.
He referenced previously reported information about how the White House, over several points during the last two weeks, was presented with opportunities to reconsider the decision to leave Bagram and each time declined to go back in.
Among the many mistakes he made handling Afghanistan, Sales says that decision was one of Biden’s worst and cost American lives. “I think that was probably one of the most important missteps that the White House took over the course of the evacuation,” said Sales.
Sales also told Fox News that the U.S. should have extended the perimeter around the airport, and the Biden administration has not provided a good reason as to why that did not happen.
“The United States should not be outsourcing security at the airport to the Taliban. American lives are at stake, and there is no substitute to extending the security perimeter to keep our people safe.”
Sales also told Fox News that the attacks near the Kabul airport Thursday were likely carried out by ISIS Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a more local branch of the global Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) network, signaling that terrorist threats in Afghanistan will continue to grow.
Since Sales’ interview CNN is reporting that it has been confirmed that the attacks were carried out by ISIS-K. The attack killed maybe as many as 90 Afghans and 13 U.S. soldiers.
General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said U.S. commanders were watching for more attacks by Islamic State, including possibly rockets or car bombs targeting the airport.
“We’re doing everything we can to be prepared,” McKenzie said, adding that some intelligence was being shared with the Taliban and that he believed “some attacks have been thwarted by them.”
More attacks on the way Thanks, retard joe.
I believe this was intentional if not by Biden, by Obama!
Biden must be impeached and removed
There are no “mistakes”, this is all planned to re-direct peoples attention from audit information and vaccine initiatives inflation and to crash the economy. Blatant manipulation, this is the “Deep State’s full court press”. They are in it to win it, at any EXTREME. Even if it means, YOUR SON’S AND DAUGHTER’S MUST DIE OVERSEAS. I want you to think about that for a second.
Redirect, redirect, redirect! These folk’s don’t care about collateral damage, it is factor into the agenda.
When are folk’s going to wake up, when it is at your front door or down the end of your street it is too late.
And if your willing to submit, then you don’t belong HERE! I really don’t care what kind of “ism” you put on me. At least I KNOW that I will be in good company.
General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, a Marine, in my opinion has forgot a Marine Corps ethos “ Retreat Hell We Just Got Here” In his compliance with a bumbling Commander in Chief who has in 50 years made one mistake after another. May God help us.
Bill, tell me you know nothing about Bagram Air Force base without saying you know nothing about Bagram Airbase…
Bagram Air Base, Is more remote… hmmm… how do you propose we get all evacuees to Bagram Air Base? Convoys ?
Do you have any idea how infamous the route to and from Bagram Airbase is? So you are advocating driving THOUSANDS of evacuees through this treacherous route? Essentially to be sitting ducks at the target practice range?
Get the fuck out of here Bill. Shits fucked up, but this hind sight of yours is not, nor will it be the answer.
Guys the present president is not able to focus on anything. Just taking my orders. His statement not mine
“There are no “mistakes”, this is all planned to re-direct peoples attention from audit information and vaccine initiatives inflation and to crash the economy.”
Bad day at Black Rock for this Dude. Sure hope he can pull out of his tailspin before it’s crash and burn time. Thank God he doesn’t have the vaccine, that’s one conspiracy he can control.
How many articles is PBP going to write accusing Biden of messing up the withdrawal from Afghanistan? I’ll repeat my previous arguments:
– Trump SURRENDERED Afghanistan to the Taliban. Read the “peace agreement” – they get everything, we leave.
– In response to Trump’s surrender, the Afghan leadership and military made side-deals with the Taliban for safe passage. Why do you think they just dissolved as soon as the US started to pull out?
– Trump committed the US to a course of action. Biden is stuck with that. He was able to delay the timetable, but any longer would have invited more Taliban attacks.
– Under Trump, the number of Afghans allowed to get visa dropped to almost zero over the last 2 years.
– Trump “negotiated” for the US to leave by May 1st. By the time he left on Feb 20, nothing was done. Where was Trump’s plan?
– On the other hand, Biden managed to get 110,000 people out. All Americans who wanted to leave are gone. All of our European allies got their people out too.
– Yes, there was an attack by ISIS-K. They hate the Taliban. They probably would have attacked whether Biden was in charge, or Trump. Get over it.
– The “Original Sin” goes back to Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. They used 9-11 as a pretext to attack Afghanistan. Bush declared “Mission Accomplished”, why didn’t he bring troops home then?
– The Taliban offered to surrender while Bush was in office. Instead, Bush refused, thinking he could completely destroy them. How’d that work out?
– Even before all that, Reagan gave the Taliban money and weapons to fight the Russians. The US trained them…
Your entire article is based on comments by Nathan Sales, the former ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism under President Trump. Trump was known for picking inexperienced idiots to run his government. Before Trump, Sales was an associate professor (not even a full or tenured professor!). I would put much more stock in what the generals on the ground told Biden than the guy who lost his job and is now trying to be relevant tells the press. The US didn’t “outsource” airport security to the Taliban – Trump negotiated that they would get it, and they took it earlier than expected. Biden had to deal with the consequences of Trump’s decisions, and that was one of them.
Trump sabotaged everything about Afghanistan on his way out the door. Biden has done a remarkable job at getting people out despite Trump’s over-all fuckup of the situation.
UPDATE:
As of 3:29 ET today (8/30), President Biden did what Trump couldn’t do – all troops are out of Afghanistan.
A total of 123,000 people were evacuated.
BTW, I forgot a bullet point that should have been in the last post:
– Trump let 5000 Taliban fighters out of jails and prisons, including the new leaders of the country. According to reports, hundreds or thousands of ISIS-K followers were also released.
Who is CLEARY? He in mentioned in the headline.
That’s Trump’s nickname. The headline is also missing a question mark, as in ” BIDEN’S MISTAKES IN AFGHANISTAN? CLEARY (Trump) RESPONSIBLE FOR ATTACKS AND LOSS OF AMERICAN LIVES!”
Trump is out of office, you should be getting better by now.
Feeling much better now that the government is in capable hands. Will feel GREAT when Trump goes to jail.
Bill, you repeatedly reference “MANY” mistakes. But lost only two opinions. Many is more than two.
Bagram is an isolated base that is extremely dangerous to get to and from. So in the eyes of those in the know, was not a good option.
Pushing the perimeter of Kubal’s airport back would have been a strategic decision of those on the ground. The President doesn’t say,” I want the perimeter pushed back by 300’ on all sides”. As a leader you say, I want the troops withdrawn, make it happen. Besides, we were withdrawing soldiers and didn’t have enough to protect the area we were in control of, what makes you think there would be enough soldiers to protect even more territory ?
Wtf is wrong with you?
Both ( two, not many) reasons you state are strategic decisions made by boots on the ground, not the President. Bill, you are a blow hard partisan hack. This isn’t even well written.