Tagged: Taliban takeover

August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

Joe Biden Blames Afghanistan Collapse On Donald Trump

NEWS PUNCH — Joe Biden is blaming former President Donald Trump for the Taliban taking over Afghanistan as the U.S. military withdraws.

Despite saying a Taliban takeover was ‘unlikely’ just a few weeks ago, Biden issued a statement on Saturday complaining that Trump had negotiated a deal “that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001.”

Breitbart reports: The president said he had the choice of either following through with Trump’s withdrawal plan or sending more troops back into Afghanistan to secure the country.

But Biden set a later date for withdrawal, choosing a new deadline of September 11th before walking it back to August 31.

“I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats,” he said. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”

On Saturday, Biden announced his decision to surge 5,000 American troops into Afghanistan to help ensure the safe evacuation of American personal.

Despite the president blaming his predecessor, Biden signaled he was disillusioned by the Afghanistan conflict:

One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence, would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. An endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.

Biden’s remarks were sharply different from his tone just a month ago when he indicated the Taliban takeover of the country was not inevitable.

“So the question now is, where do they go from here?” Biden said in July about the Taliban’s failure to negotiate a deal with the Afghan government. “The jury is still out. But the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

Biden said he would appoint Ambassador Tracey Jacobson to be in charge of relocating Afghanistan allies in the country to get them out of danger.

“Our hearts go out to the brave Afghan men and women who are now at risk,” he said. “We are working to evacuate thousands of those who helped our cause and their families.”

Trump himself criticized Biden’s handling of the withdrawal in Afghanistan in a statement on Thursday.

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August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

Taliban Boasts of Seizing Black Hawk Helicopters, US Jets After Capturing Kandahar Airport – Video

SPUTNIK — A video has emerged on social media allegedly showing Taliban* militants flying in a helicopter that the group had seized from retreating government forces. The insurgent group’s fighters also repeatedly reported capturing small arms and armored vehicles supplied by the US to Afghanistan.

Some of the military vehicles previously operated by the Afghan Air Force stationed at Kandahar Airport have apparently ended up in the hands of the Taliban* after the terrorist group seized an airbase earlier this week.

Footage reportedly showing #Taliban at Kandahar airport #Afghanistan with 2 #US supplied UH-60 Blackhawk (one under maintenance, one on apron) and 2 stored Mi-17 Hip helicopters pic.twitter.com/STpePO12NO — Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) August 14, 2021

In a series of videos and photos released by the terrorist group, at least two UH-60 Black Hawks and two Mi-17 helicopters can be seen apparently left by the retreating government forces at the airport. The Black Hawks were supplied by the US and are a part of Washington’s $88 billion spending on the security of the country and efforts to boost the Afghan military’s preparedness to fight the Taliban without any external assistance.

Additionally, a person can be heard in the background claiming that a total of five military helicopters and several jets had been seized by the Taliban at Kandahar Airport. The videos, however, suggest that not all of the equipment might be operational. One Mi-17 is missing rotor blades, while another is covered in a sheet with its blades either missing, or folded, or removed for storage.

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August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

Biden’s ‘fall of Saigon’ in Afghanistan presents worst moment yet of presidency

THE HILL — Fast forward one month, and the outcome is already a disaster, with the worst yet to come in Afghanistan. The Taliban has seized city after city and province after province with little resistance, and on Sunday has completely taken over the country, including in stunningly rapid fashion the capital city of Kabul, per multiple reports. Consequently, the U.S. embassy is rapidly being evacuated via helicopter.

“None whatsoever,” Biden replied. “Zero. What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy — six, if I’m not mistaken. The Taliban is not the South — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

Fast forward one month, and the outcome is already a disaster, with the worst yet to come in Afghanistan. The Taliban has seized city after city and province after province with little resistance, and on Sunday has completely taken over the country, including in stunningly rapid fashion the capital city of Kabul, per multiple reports. Consequently, the U.S. embassy is rapidly being evacuated via helicopter.

“What is abnormal is the scale of American helicopters circulating around the area of the embassy,” CNN reported early Sunday. “I have not seen anything like this in 20 years, in terms of the volume,” according to a CNN report early Sunday.

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