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→Joe Biden
==Joe Biden==
==Joe Biden==
On July 8, 2021, Biden said from the White House, "I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more competent in terms of conducting war,"<ref>https://freebeacon.com/national-security/bidens-afghanistan-predictions-were-all-wrong/</ref> "There's going to be no circumstance where you're going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan."<ref>https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/biden-parallels-afghanistan-vietnam-wars</ref> The same month the Defense Department said it was providing the Afghan Air Force 35 Black Hawk helicopters and three A-29 Super Tucanos. The United States spent $83 billion equipping and training the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), including $10 billion in aircraft and vehicles.<ref>https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/08/us-spent-83-billion-training-afghan-forces-why-did-they-collapse-so-quickly/184529/</ref> Less than a month later several Black Hawks helicopters and other aircraft were seized by the Taliban. Many of the aircraft and helicopters are armed. These A-29 Super Tucanos can fire laser-guided and other types of bombs. The Afghan government also had 50 American-made MD-530 attack helicopters, which are armed with machine guns and rockets. The Afghan Air Force had UH-60 Black Hawks and Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters, as well as C-130 and Cessna transports, and a small fleet of armed Cessnas.<ref>https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/08/taliban-captured-helicopters-can-they-capture-air-force/184525/</ref>
[[CNN]] reported that on July 12, 2021 the Taliban knocked on the door of a mother of four in a small village in northern Afghanistan. They were demanding food. The mother told them, "I am poor, how can I cook for you?" The Taliban beat her to death.<ref>https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/asia/afghanistan-women-taliban-intl-hnk-dst/index.html</ref>
As the impending crisis escalated, White House chief propagandists Jen Psaki said "The [[Taliban]] has to make an assessment about what they want their role to be in the international community." Her comments came as reports flowed in of Taliban fighters going door-to-door and forcibly selecting girls as young as 12 to reward as brides for the victorious jihadis.<ref>https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghans-tell-of-executions-forced-marriages-in-taliban-held-areas-11628780820</ref>
Former Obama Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said,<ref>The Atlantic (2011). [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/panetta-will-run-pentagon-petraeus-to-lead-cia/237927/ Panetta Will Run Pentagon; Petraeus to Lead CIA].</ref> the Islamist group cares less about diplomatic relations than it does about the idea that it has defeated the world’s strongest military, a narrative that will embolden other Islamist militants around the world.
{{quotebox-float|“We’re going to pay for that for a long time to come, and that’s why it is insane – just idiotic – to think that we can tell the Taliban that if they don’t stop taking over territory and play nice, the international community will withhold recognition and support. The Taliban really doesn’t care, because they’ve got something far more valuable.”
“We have seen this movie before. This would be the Taliban of the 1990s that gave safe haven to al-Qaida, except they’re meaner and tougher than they were then because of what they’ve been through.”
“But even with all of that, I’m afraid a lot of people are going to die. As the Taliban moves into different cities and towns, they’ve got their hit list. So it’s going to be messy, it’s going to be incomplete and more people are going to die, but we’ve got to make our best possible effort.”
“I’m left with some grave questions in my mind about his ability to lead our nation as commander-in-chief.”<ref>https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/aug/14/a-self-inflicted-wound-former-ambassador-to-afghan/</ref>}}
''Politico'''s chief European correspondent Matthew Karnitschnig wrote, "Biden told allies to join him in proving that [[democracy]] works and defending it against [[authoritarianism]]. Instead, they look at Afghanistan and see “the discrediting of the Western alliance and everything it is supposed to stand for in the world.”<ref>https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/08/16/what-biden-lost-in-afghanistan-493977</ref> Former Obama Defense Secretary [[Leon Panetta]] said that there is no question that "our national security is threatened by what has happened."<ref>https://youtu.be/FT_2GpJSS1I</ref>
==Lyod Austin==
==Lyod Austin==
==Antony Blinken==
==Antony Blinken==