Of all the humiliations this country has suffered under Joe Biden, Afghanistan has been the worst. Republican Congressman Steve Scalise reminds us.
One year since the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.
Thirteen U.S. service members lost their lives.
Zero Biden Administration officials held accountable.
— Lance Gooden (@Lancegooden) August 15, 2022
Scalise: It has been one year since President Biden’s botched plan that allowed the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan.
President Biden withdrew U.S. troops from Afghanistan without concrete plans to protect Americans and our Afghan partners or prevent the Taliban from taking over the country – resulting in a shameful disaster.
On this day a year ago, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan was forced to evacuate after the Taliban seized the nation’s capital, Kabul.
Last year, President Biden assured the American people that withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan would proceed “in a secure and orderly way, prioritizing the safety of our troops as they depart.”
President Biden said, “There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of [an] embassy of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable [to Vietnam].” He was wrong.
In the scramble to evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies, 13 U.S. service members unnecessarily lost their lives as they tried to manage a chaotic situation their commander in chief never should have put them in.
President Biden’s poor judgment caused unnecessary chaos and loss of life.
In the hasty exit, billions of dollars of the world’s most technologically advanced military weapons were left behind, and are now in the hands of the Taliban.
President Biden left Americans and Afghans who risked their lives to fight alongside us in danger and has created an opportunity for al Qaeda to make Afghanistan a safe haven for terrorists once again.
Before the United States entered Afghanistan in 2001 to destroy those responsible for orchestrating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Taliban was harboring al Qaeda. What’s even worse is that the Taliban allowed Usama bin Laden to run terrorist training camps on Afghan soil.
Despite the Taliban promising that al Qaeda would not be allowed in Afghanistan, a United Nations Security Council report published in June 2021 said the Taliban and al Qaeda “remain closely aligned and show no indication of breaking ties.” ISIS’s local affiliate is also active in Afghanistan.
When the United States carried out a drone strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, it wasn’t in some remote village, but rather in the capital city, Kabul, in an apartment formerly rented by an American service member and aid worker.
That’s right – Al-Zawahri, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, was not hiding. He was lounging on a balcony in downtown Kabul. This confirms that al Qaeda has found safe harbor again in Afghanistan.
While President Biden was telling the American people that al Qaeda had been removed from Afghanistan, behind the scenes his team knew this was not true.
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