Americans on Monday mourned the third anniversary of the ISIS-K bombing at the Abiy Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghans, amid a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Biden administration has come under heavy criticism over the chaotic withdrawal, with some arguing it has even emboldened countries such as Russia and Iran to take aggressive steps against the West.
“I think this was the Biden administration’s most impactful and significant foreign policy misstep, and it set in motion the chain of events that we’re dealing with today,” retired Gen. Jack Keane, a senior strategic analyst at Fox News, said Monday.
President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken look on as a transport team carries a transport case carrying the body of Marine Corporal Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, on Sunday, Aug. 29, to transport the remains of the 13 service members killed in the Aug. 26 suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer)
US failure to gather intelligence on the Taliban opens Afghanistan to China and Russia
The former Army general said he was informed by Biden’s “sit-in-the-room” that the president “defiantly” pressed ahead with plans to withdraw from Afghanistan despite warnings about Taliban activity across the country.
Keene argued that the decision not to leave US troops in Afghanistan opened the door to other global conflicts, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Iranian aggression in the Middle East, particularly against Israel.
“They see this as a political weakness on our part,” Keane said. “And ever since then, they’ve been trying to exploit that weakness because they clearly see an opportunity for themselves.”
The Taliban’s seizure of Afghanistan has been blamed on a massive US intelligence failure, as the terrorist group was gaining ground even before the Trump administration reached a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 that saw the US agree to a full withdrawal of troops by May 2021.
Biden, who extended the withdrawal deadline to August 2021, said he took responsibility for the Abbey Gate attack but also blamed his predecessor for dragging the US into a bad deal with the Taliban.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford speaks during a Christmas Eve ceremony at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahamat Gul, File)
Gold Star father messages VP Harris 3 years after Abbey Gate attack: ‘She owns this’
“We were faced with two options: extend it as agreed by the previous administration and give people more time to get out, or send in thousands more soldiers and escalate the war,” he said. Address to the Nation in August 2021“To those who call for 30 more years of war in Afghanistan, I ask: What is the vital interest of the nation?”
“It’s time to end this war,” he added.
But the administration has faced stiff opposition to this day, including from presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, who cemented her role in the U.S. withdrawal in a 2021 CNN interview by saying she was “the last person” in Biden’s room before he decided to withdraw.
“This was the biggest foreign policy blunder of our lifetimes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, told Fox News on Monday. “It set in motion a chain of events that emboldened our adversaries around the world and allowed the Taliban to return to power.”
“We have essentially sacrificed 20 years of effort and the service members who served there. It’s awful,” he added.
This photo provided by the Department of Defense shows US soldiers evacuating people to safety. (Department of Defense)
Biden on Monday issued a statement memorializing the 13 service members who died in the August 2021 attack, saying, “They embodied the best of our nation: bravery, commitment and selflessness. We owe them and their families a sacred debt that we can never fully repay, but we will never stop working to repay it.”
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“Today, our longest war ends. But our determination to prevent attacks on our country, and our people, never ends,” Biden continued. “And we’ll do it without sending thousands of American troops to ground combat overseas.”
Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, August 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahamat Gul)
Ms Harris also released a statement acknowledging the anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack and reiterated her support for Mr Biden’s decision to withdraw.
“President Biden has made the courageous and right decision to end the longest war in American history,” she said. “On this solemn day, we come together as one nation to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice three years ago.”
“In their memory, let us rededicate ourselves to the cause for which they gave their lives: protecting and defending the greatest democracy on Earth, the United States of America,” she added.
