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Joe Biden announced that he will be sending at least an additional 1,000 troops into Afghanistan.
This decision comes as Biden falls under immense pressure and backlash following his decisions to precipitously withdraw U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Biden’s failure to understand the movement of the Taliban and provide effective preparation with the Afghan government has had horrifying consequences.
U.S. troops have been under fire, at least twice, while at Kabul’s Karzai International Airport, the NY Post reports.
“Thousands of Afghans have been filmed desperately chasing after and clinging to a US Air Force plane as it taxied down the runway — with multiple people plunging to their deaths after the aircraft took off in the frantic attempt to flee the country after the Taliban takeover,” the report adds.
“US officials said seven people were killed, including two shot dead by American forces, after crowds of Afghans stormed Kabul’s international airport on Monday and swarmed the tarmac as US military flights were preparing to leave,” the report added.
The Wall Street Journal reported, “U.S. troops shot and killed two armed men at Kabul’s international airport, according to a U.S. official. The armed men, who numbered at least two, approached U.S. troops deployed to the airport to provide security and assist Americans and other individuals in a safe departure from Afghanistan, the official said. Few details were available about how things transpired between the U.S. troops and the armed men, who weren’t identified.”
Now Biden says the troops are being deployed to assist with evacuation efforts as the Taliban has seized on the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal and now control the majority of the country.
Biden said in a statement via Daily Wire:
First, based on the recommendations of our diplomatic, military, and intelligence teams, I have authorized the deployment of approximately 5,000 U.S. troops to make sure we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of U.S. personnel and other allied personnel, and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance.
Second, I have ordered our Armed Forces and our Intelligence Community to ensure that we will maintain the capability and the vigilance to address future terrorist threats from Afghanistan.
Biden then tried to blame former President Donald Trump for the actions that his administration has made that have seriously backfired in the Middle East.
“When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor — which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019 — that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. Forces,” Biden claimed, without noting that Trump did not end up meeting the Taliban because the meeting was canceled. “Shortly before he left office, he also drew U.S. Forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500.”
“Therefore, when I became President, I faced a choice — follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our Forces and our allies’ Forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict.”
