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Updated August 18th, 2021 at 12:49 IST

Biden's 'disastrous strategy & weakness towards Taliban' led to Afghan crisis, says Pence

Pence accused Biden of showing “weakness” towards Taliban and insisted that the crisis in Afghanistan wouldn’t have happened if US troops left country sooner

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
Biden
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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Former US Vice President Mike Pence on August 17 accused President Joe Biden of his “weakness” towards the Taliban and insisted that the crisis in Afghanistan wouldn’t have happened if US troops left the country sooner. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Pence called the Taliban's ascendancy in Kabul the most humiliating foreign policy event since the Iran hostage crisis. He slammed Biden's "disastrous" strategy and said that the Trump administration put the US on a stable trajectory with a conditions-based deal to withdraw from the country in the spring.

However, Pence added that Biden unnecessarily extended the deadline without a coherent plan, leading to disaster. “America’s endless war was coming to a dignified end, and Bagram Air Base ensured we could conduct counterterrorism missions through the war’s conclusion,” Pence said about the Trump administration’s peace deal with the Taliban, which set the US withdrawal date at May 1. 

“But when Mr. Biden became president, he quickly announced that U.S. forces would remain in Afghanistan for an additional four months without a clear reason for doing so,” Pence added. 

He said, “There was no plan to transport the billions of dollars worth of American equipment recently captured by the Taliban, or evacuate the thousands of Americans now scrambling to escape Kabul, or facilitate the regional resettlement of the thousands of Afghan refugees who will now be seeking asylum in the U.S. with little or no vetting. Rather, it seems that the president simply didn’t want to appear to be abiding by the terms of a deal negotiated by his predecessor”. 

Biden stands behind decision to withdraw troops

Meanwhile, Biden, on the other hand, has asserted that despite the outcome, now was the time for US forces to pull out of the country, where the US military has maintained a presence since 2001. However, he also conceded that the fall of Kabul and surrounding areas happened "more quickly than we anticipated," a result that left thousands of US citizens and Afghan allies stuck in the country. Biden also informed that around 6,000 US troops were authorised to fly to Afghanistan for the purpose of assisting in the departure of US and allied civilian personnel from Afghanistan.

"I stand squarely behind my decision," Biden said from the White House. "After 20 years, I have learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw”.

(Image: AP)

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Published August 18th, 2021 at 12:49 IST

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