Former vice president Mike Pence Once said that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan shows that the president Joe Biden“Weaknesses” and “embrace America on the world stage.”
Pence served as a vice president under the former president Donald Trump, Wrote a column, published on Tuesday, for Wall Street Journal In it, he strongly criticized the situation in Afghanistan.
There was chaos in the capital Kabul because The Taliban quickly advance and seize territory Across the country, President Biden defended the decision to advance the troop drawdown.
In his column, Pence quoted Biden’s comments made in July when the president said that the Taliban were unlikely to occupy Afghanistan or that people would have to be lifted off the roof of the US embassy in Kabul.
“One month later, what Mr. Biden thought was impossible became a terrible reality,” Pence wrote.
“In recent days, the whole world has seen panicked civilians holding on to American armies The plane desperately tried to get rid of the chaos caused by Mr. Biden’s reckless retreat. American diplomats had to plead with our enemies not to attack our embassy in Kabul. Taliban fighters seized dozens of U.S. military vehicles, rifles, artillery, planes, helicopters and drones,” he said.
Pence continued: “The disastrous withdrawal of the Biden administration from Afghanistan is a disgrace to foreign policy. This is unlike anything our country has suffered since the Iranian hostage crisis.”
Pence refers to the time when Americans were held hostage in Iran after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. U.S. personnel were detained from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and some of them were detained for more than a year.
Pence wrote: “This embarrassed the United States on the world stage, made allies doubt our reliability, and allowed the enemy to dare to test our resolve.”
“Worst of all, it shames those brave Americans who helped bring terrorists to justice after 9/11, and everyone who has served in Afghanistan for the past 20 years.”
Pence claimed that Biden violated the agreement reached between the Trump administration and the Taliban by keeping the US military in Afghanistan after May 1. “There is no clear reason to do so.”
He also accused the Biden administration of failing to develop an evacuation plan or prevent equipment from falling into their hands. Taliban.
“There are no plans to transport billions of dollars worth of American equipment recently captured by the Taliban, or to evacuate thousands of Americans who are scrambling to flee Kabul, or to facilitate the resettlement of thousands of Afghan refugees who are now seeking asylum in the United States. No censorship,” the former vice president wrote.
“On the contrary, the president just doesn’t seem to want to appear to abide by the terms of the agreement negotiated by his predecessor,” he said.
Pence continued: “Weakness causes evil-and the scale of evil now rising in Afghanistan fully illustrates Mr. Biden’s weakness.”
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Pence wrote at the end of his column that 20 years later, the Americans were preparing to bring their troops home, but “Mr. Biden’s way of carrying out the withdrawal is a shame, and it is not worthy of bloodshed that brave American soldiers still tarnish Afghanistan. soil of.”
Weekly newspaper The White House has been asked for comment.
In his televised speech on Monday, President Biden told the audience: “I firmly support my decision” exit.
“When I took office, I inherited an agreement negotiated between President Trump and the Taliban. According to his agreement, the U.S. military will withdraw from Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, just over three months after I took office. The U.S. military has been in the Trump administration, and the U.S. military has been downsized from approximately 15,500 U.S. troops to 2,500 garrisons. The Taliban has been in the strongest military position since 2001.
Biden said he was faced with a choice: “…to continue with the agreement, or to prepare to fight the Taliban again in the middle of the spring fighting season.”
“There will be no ceasefire after May 1,” he said. “After May 1st, no agreement was reached to protect our military. After May 1st, there would be no stable status quo without US military casualties.
“There is only a cold reality, either to withdraw our troops in accordance with the agreement, or to escalate the conflict and send thousands of American troops back to Afghanistan to fight, and fall into the third decade of the conflict.”
