Biden Claims Afghanistan Withdrawal Could Not Have Been Handled Better

During an interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos that aired on Wednesday, President Biden doubled down on his confidence in the success of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, where 15,000 Americans are still stranded.

“When you look at what’s happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution, or judgment?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Look, I don’t think it was fair, look, it was a simple choice, George,” Biden replied. “When the, when the Taliban, let me back up and put it another way. When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government gets in a plane and taking off and going to another country, when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off. That was, you know, I’m not, that’s what happened. That’s simply what happened.”

It should be noted that is not “simply what happened.” The Afghan army was able to fight back against the Taliban until Biden’s decision to withdraw included measures like the removal of private contractors who were servicing the Afghan military.

“The Afghan army fighting alongside American troops was molded to match the way the Americans operate,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The U.S. military, the world’s most advanced, relies heavily on combining ground operations with airpower, using aircraft to resupply outposts, strike targets, ferry the wounded, and collect reconnaissance and intelligence.”

“In the wake of President Biden’s withdrawal decision, the U.S. pulled its air support, intelligence and contractors servicing Afghanistan’s planes and helicopters. That meant the Afghan military simply couldn’t operate anymore,” the Wall Street Journal added.

Later in the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Biden, “So, you don’t think this could have been handled, this exit could have been handled better in any way? No mistakes?”

“No, I, I, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden responded. “I don’t know how that happened.”

“So for you, that was always priced into the decision?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“Yes,” Biden claimed.

Biden’s claim that “chaos ensuing” was “always priced into the decision” conflicts with his statements from before the withdrawal. During a press conference in July, Biden said that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

He later added, “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.”

A month after Biden claimed there would be “no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy,” there were people being lifted off the roof of an embassy.

PHOTO 1: US diplomat evacuate US from embassy via helicopter as the #Taliban enter #Kabul from all sides. #Afghanistan (2021)

PHOTO 2: US diplomat evacuate US from embassy via helicopter as the PAVN & Viet Cong capture of Saigon, Vietnam (1975) pic.twitter.com/YamWmzjOay

— Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) August 15, 2021