CNN Jim Acosta It was claimed on Friday that the Biden administration was “surprised” by the rapid advance of the Afghan Taliban forces, who now seem to threaten the capital Kabul.
Acosta and the Taliban discussed the recent fighting and the Taliban’s territorial gains CNN Host Fareed Zakaria (Fareed Zakaria) both expressed surprise at how quickly the situation in the country deteriorated
Taliban now has Gained control of a large area of Afghanistan, Including Kandahar and Herat, which are the two largest cities after Kabul. The United States and Britain have provided reinforcements to the capital to help evacuate people.
Acosta asked Zakaria: “Why do you think the Biden administration was surprised by all this?”
“They won’t admit it, but they do,” he said.
Zakaria replied: “I think everyone is surprised by the extent of this collapse.”
“In all this, the most important thing is, Jim, when the Taliban occupied these cities-Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat-there were very few casualties. What does this mean?” Zakaria said.
“The Afghan army is not actually fighting,” he said. “It’s melting. It’s an army of 300,000 people, trained for 20 years, with tens of billions of dollars in US funding you said, and an air force. It just doesn’t fight. It’s melting.”
Zakaria said that the US strategy is to stabilize Afghanistan by destroying the Taliban, but this policy has not worked. He also pointed out that he was an afterthought, and he was not sure what he thought of the matter 20 years ago. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
“It seems that the Taliban cannot be defeated in this way,” Zakaria said. “They represent part of Afghan society. They represent part of the Afghan Pashtuns-the largest ethnic group-and, you know, they have passion, perseverance and will.
“It really reminds me of South Vietnam, Jim,” Zakaria continued. “We stayed there for many years-500,000 U.S. troops, and it cost billions of dollars. Ultimately, if you talk to local soldiers, what they will tell you is, The one thing we are missing is the South Vietnamese Army Just can’t fight. “
“Well, that’s the problem here. The Afghan army just doesn’t know how to fight,” he said.
Acosta said: “This is maddening, because we seem to have purchased an army for the Afghan security forces, which now seems to belong to the Taliban.”
“The U.S. Embassy in Kabul is instructing people to destroy sensitive materials. This seems to be an admission that they expect Kabul to fall,” he continued.
The image below, provided by Statista, shows the progress of the Taliban in Afghanistan as of August 13 according to data from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy (FDD) Long-Term War magazine.
Statistician
“I think you would be crazy if you didn’t plan,” Zakaria replied. “As you pointed out, you did not hear from the President of Afghanistan. You did not hear the counterattack. You did not hear the regroup.”
Zakaria explained that some of the cities recently occupied by the Taliban had fallen into their hands and were taken back. He wondered if the Afghan government has a strategy to retake these cities.Acosta asked him about the president Joe BidenThe processing situation.
“He didn’t expect this to happen,” Acosta said, asking whether Biden should prepare the American people for the “horrible scenario” of the Taliban taking over Afghanistan.
“In a sense, this is a slow disaster [former President] Donald Trump Indeed, the most important action was taken. He drastically reduced the US military from 15,000 to 3,000 in my opinion, and started negotiations with the Taliban,” Zakaria said.
“This created this unreal atmosphere, people thought things had stabilized. They didn’t. The Taliban just stopped fighting with the Americans because they were waiting to negotiate their withdrawal. Once we started the withdrawal, the Taliban strengthened again,” he said .
“Biden should let people serve the Taliban, Once the battle begins, it will prevail,” Zakaria said.
Weekly newspaper The White House has been asked for comment.
/AFP via Getty Images
