The end is in the sight for the chaotic evacuation from the Kabul Airport, as US personnel begin to withdraw and the Taliban move in. 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghans were killed in a suicide bombing at the airport on Thursday, with the Pentagon warning another attack could be imminent.
But the tragic scenes on Thursday have sparked a new wave of backlash at Biden’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. What could have gone wrong, has gone wrong.
Former Representative Peter King mourned the loss o the 13 U.S. service members killed in Thursday’s attack, telling The Cats Roundtable the evacuation was “the most poorly planned event I can imagine.”
According to King, Biden’s promise to withdraw U.S. troops unconditionally, leaving the Afghan military to fend for itself, was one of the root causes of the current crisis.
“I think the president should have found a way to maintain a smaller unit of American forces there,” King explained, “and that could have provided stability, that could have allowed us to get the intelligence we’ve gotten.”
King also told The Cats Roundtable that Biden had contributed to the chaos by abandoning the intelligence apparatus a 20 year U.S. presence in Afghanistan had built.
“All that now is going to be severely reduced, if not eliminated altogether,” King said, “and intelligence agencies around the world were relying on the information we got out of Afghanistan, that’s going to be shut off.”
King was certain that terrorist elements around the world would now flock to Afghanistan, fearing the country would again become a “hotbed of terrorism.” He worried the Taliban victory, and their framing it as an American loss, would embolden and inspire radicals here in America.
“This is bad, no matter how you look at it,” King admitted. “The fact is, your freedom is not free.”
King, like most Americans, understands the fatigue of the last 20 years, but like the majority of Americans believed Biden’s unilateral, unconditional withdrawal was not the way to end things.
“it’s easier to say we can’t have endless wars,” King told The Cats Roundtable. “Well, the problem is we don’t get to declare when the war is over, the enemy is still going to keep fighting.”
