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During his testimony before the House today, CENTCOM head Gen. Frank McKenzie confirmed something that we reported last month – that during a meeting that McKenzie had with the Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, he was offered the full control of Kabul while evacuation operations were completed.
It was an astonishing report revealed last month – that they had the opportunity to provide a safe withdrawal with the whole city being a buffer around the airport, offered by the Taliban – but turned it down instead opting for the unsafe, completely endangered and at-risk situation they ended up with, at the mercy of the Taliban. It’s likely why U.S. service members and Afghans were killed in the suicide attack. //
Another thing to note was that McKenzie’s meeting with the Taliban came on August 15, the same day the city of Kabul fell. NBC has reported that the day before, McKenzie had warned Baradar that the Taliban shouldn’t come within 20 to 30 kilometers of the city or they would be hit by airstrikes. But then the Taliban took over the city and there were no airstrikes. “The next day, Taliban fighters rolled into Kabul, and no U.S. warplanes bombed the insurgents, the three senior defense officials said,” NBC News said.
Great job there, Biden Administration. They’ll surely take you seriously when you don’t even follow through on a threat like that. But that was essentially the problem with the whole withdrawal – the Biden Administration let the Taliban dictate to them throughout and it cost Americans and Afghan allies their lives.
