Joe Biden issued a statement Saturday blaming former President Donald Trump after the Taliban rapidly took control of the majority of Afghanistan\u2019s major cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor,\u201d Biden wrote, complaining that Trump negotiated a deal \u201cthat left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden also noted that Trump had set the troop withdrawal date of May 1 and reduced troop levels to 2,500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president said he had the choice of either following through with Trump\u2019s withdrawal plan or sending more troops back into Afghanistan to secure the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Biden set a later date for withdrawal, choosing a new deadline of September 11th before walking it back to August 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan\u2014two Republicans, two Democrats,\u201d he said. \u201cI would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday, Biden announced his decision to surge 5,000 American troops into Afghanistan to help ensure the safe evacuation of American personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the president blaming his predecessor, Biden signaled he was disillusioned by the Afghanistan conflict:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence, would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. An endless American presence in the middle of another country\u2019s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden\u2019s remarks were sharply different from his tone just a month ago when he indicated the Taliban takeover of the country was not inevitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo the question now is, where do they go from here?\u201d Biden said in July about the Taliban\u2019s failure to negotiate a deal with the Afghan government. \u201cThe jury is still out. But the likelihood there\u2019s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden said he would appoint Ambassador Tracey Jacobson to be in charge of relocating Afghanistan allies in the country to get them out of danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur hearts go out to the brave Afghan men and women who are now at risk,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are working to evacuate thousands of those who helped our cause and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump himself criticized Biden\u2019s handling of the withdrawal in Afghanistan in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI personally had discussions with top Taliban leaders whereby they understood what they are doing now would not have been acceptable,\u201d he said, noting that if he was still president, he would have focused on a \u201cconditions-based\u201d withdrawal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Biden issued a statement Saturday blaming former President Donald Trump after the Taliban rapidly took control of the majority of Afghanistan\u2019s major cities. \u201cWhen I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor,\u201d Biden wrote, complaining that Trump negotiated a deal \u201cthat left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":32832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[306],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cww7news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/TB-e1628986727335.png?fit=700%2C470&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32833,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32831\/revisions\/32833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}