Pres. Biden will be speaking at 3:45 PM ET regarding
Pres. Biden will be speaking at 3:45 PM ET from the White House regarding Afghanistan. Biden returned to the White House from Camp David.
The talking talking point that were distributed by the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that:
- The Pres. was not willing to enter the 3rd decade of conflict and surge in thousands of troops to fight in the Civil War that Afghanistan wouldn't fight for themselves.
- The sudden collapse of the Afghan government and their forces was proof that the only way to forestall disaster would've been to ramp up American troops. That was something the President did not want to do.
- The administration knew that there was a distinct possibility that Kabul would fall to the Taliban. It was not an inevitable. It was a possibility
- The administration had contingency plans in place for any eventuality - including a quick fall of Kabul. That's why the US had troops pre-positioned in the region to deploy as they have done
Critics are saying that if they had plans in place for the evacuation, why was there such chaos at the airports where civilians were literally clinging to the undercarriage of US military aircraft?
Biden may also criticize the prior administration for reducing Afghanistan troops from 13,000 2500 when Biden took office, in effect increasing the possibility for failure and leaving the President with little choice but to continue the exit.
Nevertheless, Pres. Biden has a lot of explaining to do to smooth over the exit. Also, there are a lot of uncertainties regarding the future of Taliban terrorism that need to be hashed out.
