Well, it’s over. America’s longest war is over. It ended just like how it began, with the Taliban in charge of the country—sort of. In truth, it’s chaos on the ground no one is really in charge of the country, but the Taliban have retaken the key areas of the country including Kabul. After 20 years of fighting, over 2,000 deaths, and trillions of dollars, we replaced the Taliban with…the Taliban. It’s American failure. It brutally exposes the limits of American power for sure. It’s not all Joe Biden’s fault, but how we left, the chaos at the airport, and the fact that we left Americans behind, is Joey’s blunder. Everyone was on vacation when this nation collapsed. And now, we have a Washington Post article that detailed how the Taliban offered to give control of the capital to American forces. We refused. We just wanted the airport. The Taliban then set up checkpoints and roadblocks around the airport. They beat Americans. They seized US passports. It made a smooth departure of American citizens stranded behind American lives and key Afghan allies incredibly difficult. We have the operational capability to control the city. We certainly have the manpower to do so. We have thousands of troops on the ground within days when Kabul was engulfed in chaos and the Taliban was on the verge of sealing this victory over the US. It would have been a longer withdrawal, but one where we could have evacuated more of our people and key Afghan allies. Instead, we’re gone—and scores of people are now stranded. Oh, and the Biden administration gave the Taliban lists with these people’s names on them.
And did Jen Psaki know about this WaPo story? She was asked about it by RealClearPolitics’ Philip Wegemann. She claimed ignorance, taking the ‘I know nothing’ route with this one.
“I have not seen this reporting. I have to look at it,” she said. Is that the official White House position? I hope not because White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain would give away the game.
When I asked if the WaPo report was true, namely that the Taliban offered to stay out of Kabul and let US forces secure the city but we turned them down, @PressSec told me "I have not seen this reporting."
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 30, 2021
Here is the Washington Post story in question. Also, as @McCormackJohn first noted, @WHCOS liked a tweet that read "we were right not to take over security in Kabul when the Taliban asked if we wanted to." https://t.co/4fYk1DKf1u
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 30, 2021
Is this White House confirmation of that @washingtonpost scoop?
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) August 30, 2021
The chief of staff retweeting a TPM article? https://t.co/GfBL28xhyF pic.twitter.com/E8YKQYbKCw
RCP's @PhilipWegmann asks Psaki about the WaPo report that the Taliban offered U.S. forces control of Kabul but we only expressed the need for Kabul airport:
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) August 30, 2021
"I have not seen this reporting," she claims. pic.twitter.com/UX6Zr3RNAO
What are the chances that Psaki and Klain are on different pages on this? Also, who in liberal America, and especially this White House, doesn’t read The Washington Post. It’s not some local paper. It’s a national publication that everyone in this town reads. She didn’t see it—I’m calling BS on that one.