WASHINGTON – President Biden overestimated his own competence in foreign affairs before the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, making unhelpful and impractical suggestions while displaying an “arrogant self-belief” that left his administration unprepared for chaos. devastating of the evacuation of Kabul. according to a forthcoming book.
In “The Last Politician,” due for publication Sept. 5 and excerpted by The Atlantic on Tuesday, magazine writer Franklin Foer says the 80-year-old commander-in-chief “showed determination, even stubbornness, despite the angry critics of the establishment”. figures whose approval he normally craved” over his decision to end the US presence in Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, after two decades.
“For a man vaunted for his empathy, he could come off as aloof, even icy, when faced with the prospect of human suffering,” Foer wrote of Biden, who was apparently caught looking at his watch as he attended the dignified transfer of 13 slain service members. . in an ISIS-K suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport and allegedly told the mother of one of the victims that her son’s death was the same as her late son Beau’s death.
“When it came to foreign policy,” Foer added, “Joe Biden had an arrogant faith in himself.”
So strong was that faith that Biden, once described by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates as “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” regarded seasoned diplomats and experts as “adverse at risk, indebted to the institutions [and] lazy in their thinking,” according to the book.
President Biden overestimated his own competence in foreign affairs before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, according to a new book, “The Last Politician,” due to be published next month. AFP via Getty Images
The president mistrusted officials who warned him against ending the war too soon and ignored the apprehensions of the country’s top military officials who warned of the risks of withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan just seven months after taking office. post.
“One aide recalled how he used to say, ‘You foreign policy makers think this is all pretty complicated. But it’s like family dynamics,’” Foer wrote of Biden, adding that in the president’s assessment: “Foreign affairs was sometimes painful, often pointless, but it was really emotional intelligence applied to people with names that were hard to come by. to pronounce”.
“Diplomacy, in Biden’s view, was akin to persuading an annoying uncle to stop drinking so much,” Foer added.
Biden’s commitment to his wisdom continued throughout the eventful evacuation mission, as it would reportedly “spice up [then-Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass] with ideas for pushing more evacuees through the gates” of the airport, most of which were nearly impossible given the circumstances on the ground.
“The president’s instinct was to dive into the intricacies of problem solving. ‘Why don’t we meet them in the parking lots? Can’t we get out of the airport and pick them up?’” Foer wrote.
New details have emerged that President Biden made unhelpful and impractical suggestions while displaying an “arrogant faith in himself” that left his administration unprepared for the devastating chaos of the Kabul evacuation. US Air Forces Europe-Africa via Getty Images
“Bass was discussing Biden’s proposed solutions with his colleagues to determine their plausibility, which was typically low.”
The problem with many of Biden’s suggestions, in Foer’s words, was that the United States “did not have the troops or the will to secure Kabul.” Afghan forces had moved away from their positions in the capital without any resistance, while the Americans had abandoned the larger Bagram airfield an hour north of Kabul in early July, giving looters time to rob what they could before Afghan forces took control.
Although former President Donald Trump had put the withdrawal in motion during his presidency with the Doha Agreement, it was Biden’s decision to follow through, according to the book, a decision that “would have to be made in a sprint.”
Despite the advice of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Biden decided to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“Although she never officially complained, Milley did not understand the decision,” Foer wrote.
“How do you honor the dead to admit defeat in a conflict that had been waged in their name?”
The president overcame the apprehensions of the country’s top military officials, who warned of the risks of withdrawing all US forces from Afghanistan just seven months after taking office. Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via
Although Biden overruled advice from Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to keep a contingent of US troops in the country, he ultimately agreed to move the withdrawal date to August 31, which Foer called “an implicit concession that [the White House] he had been wrong” in choosing the emotional milestone as the end of the war.
But that shift only hastened the withdrawal, even as diplomats and military officials warned of a strengthening Taliban, which would ultimately topple the US-backed Afghan government on August 15, 2021, while US troops were in the midst of the evacuation mission.
As early as June 2021, national security adviser Jake Sullivan “began to worry that the Pentagon had withdrawn US personnel and materiel from Afghanistan too hastily,” according to Foer.
The “rapid drawdown” of US forces in the country, which began in May, “had allowed the Taliban to advance and win a series of victories” against the Afghan army, which “caught the administration by surprise.”
Although former President Donald Trump had put the withdrawal in motion during his presidency with the Doha Agreement, it was Biden’s decision to follow through, according to the book, a decision that “would have to be made in a sprint.” UGC via AP
General Frank McKenzie, then head of US Central Command, soon warned that evacuation efforts should start sooner, putting forward an estimate that Kabul could be “encircled in about 30 days, a much faster collapse than previously anticipated.” .
But the Biden administration did not follow McKenzie’s advice, and the State Department delayed the start of the evacuation mission “to avoid cultivating a sense of panic in Kabul,” a sentiment Foer said was backed by the CIA.
The withdrawal would not be declared until mid-August, after Milley pleaded with Sullivan to pressure Biden to make the call with the Taliban less than 100 miles from Kabul.
“The intelligence community assumed that the Taliban would not storm Kabul until after the US left, because the Taliban wanted to avoid a block-by-block battle for the city,” Foer wrote.
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“But the proximity of the Taliban to the embassy and the HKIA was terrifying. It required the decisive action that the administration had so far resisted.”
That led diplomats with only three days to leave the US embassy, which the State Department had planned to keep open even after the last troops left.
As anxiety grew among the Afghan people fearful of life (and death) under the Taliban regime, thousands of people stormed the airport as military evacuation flights began on August 16, 2021.
“The Americans needed the Taliban to help control the crowds that had formed outside the airport and put in place systems that would allow passport and visa holders to pass through the crowd,” Foer wrote.
“But the Taliban were imperfect allies at best. Their checkpoints were manned by field warriors who didn’t know how to deal with the sheer amount of documents being waved in their faces.”
When a US C-17 Globemaster carrying supplies for arriving US troops landed that day, the plane “came under fire from a wave of civilians”.
Overwhelmed, the crew closed the plane’s entry points and gave permission to flee, according to Foer.
As the plane took off, some Afghans clung to the outside of the plane, rising thousands of feet into the air before falling to their deaths in sickening footage broadcast around the world, mostly on social media.
In the end, the humanitarian evacuation mission that Biden had no initial intention of carrying out collapsed in despair, which in turn drew fierce criticism that the president continues to try to fend off two years later.
According to Foer, “everything [Biden had] What he saw from his seat in the Situation Room confirmed his belief that getting out of a hopeless war was the best and only path.”
As for the angry reaction, Biden called it “overheated” and reportedly told an aide that “either the press is losing their minds or I am.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn