Jake Tapper Tries To Blame Biden For "Disastrous" Afghanistan Withdraw But Sec. Of State Delivers The Facts

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Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:36 pm

CNN’s Jake Tapper tried to blame President Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal situation, but Sec. of State Blinken was ready.

Video:

Jake Tapper asks if Biden is to blame for the "disastrous" withdrawal from Afghanistan. Sec. of State Blinken tells him that "four administrations" spent billions building up the Afghan forces. Tapper then admits that his real point is leaving troops in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/QjMAwppDYY

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) August 15, 2021

In response to Tapper asking if Biden is responsible for the “disastrous” Afghanistan withdrawal, Sec. Blinken answered:

First, we’ve known all along and said all along including the president that the Taliban was at its greatest position of strength at any time since 2001 when it was last in charge of the country. That is the Taliban that we inherited. And so we saw they were very much capable of going on the offensive and beginning to take back the country.

But at the same time, we had invested over four administrations billions of dollars along with the international community in the Afghan security and defense forces. Building a modern military. With the most sophisticated equipment. 300,000 forces strong. With an air force the Taliban didn’t have. And the fact is we’ve seen that force has been unable to defend the country. That has happened more quickly than we anticipated.

The Withdrawal Messiness Is Not President Biden’s Fault

What the world is witnessing unfold in Afghanistan is why three previous administrations all decided to stay. The Afghan government was propped up by the United States and has had a problem with government forces being willing to fight the Taliban for decades.

Tapper was approaching his questions from the perspective of leaving more US troops in the country, but it doesn’t matter how many troops the US would leave in Afghanistan if the Afghan people are not willing to fight for democracy.

Some in the corporate media are way more invested in staying in Afghanistan than the American people. The American people want the US out of Afghanistan.

It is time for the war to end and for the people of Afghanistan to be responsible for their own country.

It is irresponsible to blame Joe Biden for a difficult withdrawal whose conditions were put in place by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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