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As part of Trump’s deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, US President Joe Biden declared that US troops would depart by August 31. Joe Biden remarked in July, shortly before Afghanistan succumbed to the Taliban, that “We have developed a 300,000-strong army for Afghanistan with a sophisticated modern air force that is completely capable of confronting 75,000 Taliban militants. My faith is placed in the Afghan army, which has the greater battle experience, is better equipped, and is more competent. The Afghan government and army will not disintegrate. It’s highly doubtful that the Taliban would seize control of entire Afghanistan, and the current administration would continue to exist,” Biden optimistically predicted a scenario that never came true. Although the US and its allies have spent billions of dollars to develop, equip, and train the Afghan air force, special forces commandos, and police, the Afghan army has proven a paper tiger, reportedly declined to engage in the confrontations with the Taliban. The United States has spent more than $ 83 billion on Afghanistan’s military, while NATO has contributed more than $ 70 million in aid, including medical supplies and arms. The hasty withdrawal of US soldiers from Bagram Air Base, which served as the focal point of US operations in Afghanistan at the time, dealt a severe blow to the morale of the Afghan government’s security forces.
On the other hand, Ashraf Ghani’s strategy for leading the war and repelling Taliban attacks remained ambiguous. Due to a lack of political clarity in political affairs, there was inevitably a lack of political will to battle the Taliban, notably in northern and western Afghanistan, and thus the Taliban conquered the Afghan towns one by one. The Afghan army that the US and its allies supplied with all forms of sophisticated equipment collapsed overnight with little apparent resistance, and now we witness the Taliban deploying US-made weapons in Kabul, as hundreds of M-117 armoured security vehicles patrolled Kabul’s main boulevard yesterday, with ME-17 helicopters hovering above and countless Taliban militants with “assault weapons” taking part in a massive parade. US authorities were astounded by the Taliban’s rapid rise to power, to the point that US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN that the loss of Kabul before August 31 was unexpected for US intelligence. “We had to confront significant obstacles in our attempt to end a 20-year war. In this sense, having a clear picture is critical. Kabul was not expected to fall until August 31, according to the US intelligence services. Obviously, we had contingency measures in place to deal with the situation. About 6,000 soldiers were dispatched to protect the Kabul airport, and over 120,000 people were evacuated,” Mr Sullivan was quoted as saying. “Undoubtedly, when we look back, we can say that we could have done some things better,” Sullivan said, adding that “the main decision, the decision to withdraw and the decision to reduce the number of troops during the summer, and the decision to implement these precautionary plans and evacuate civilians until August 31, were the decisions that President Biden stood by. We stood by these decisions.” Sullivan also claimed: “We believe that by leaving Afghanistan instead of staying in that country, the US national interests and security will be better served.”
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