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Biden to address nation as Afghanistan rapidly falls to the Taliban amid chaotic evacuation of US officials

The rapid collapse of the Afghan government comes after assurances from top Democrats that a complete takeover by the radical Islamic Taliban was not imminent.
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 Drew Angerer / Staff / Getty

Ashley
Sadler
Ashley Sadler

WASHINGTON, D.C., (LifeSiteNews) — After drawing intense bipartisan criticism for failing to address the nation amid a turbulent withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, President Biden is now set to give a speech on the situation Monday afternoon.

The news comes after reports indicated Biden would give an address “in the next few days.”

Many have decried Biden’s silence on the rapidly escalating situation, leading to calls for the president to resign.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan triggered a rapid descent into chaos in the region over the weekend, with radical Islamic Taliban insurgents seizing power of the capital city, Kabul, as Americans abandoned the embassy and thousands of Afghan citizens desperately attempted to flee the country.

After repeated assurances from the Biden Administration that a takeover by the Taliban was by no means imminent, this weekend saw a swift toppling of the Afghan leadership supported by the U.S. government as the Taliban moved with lightning speed to take control.

In humiliating images reminiscent of the hasty evacuation of thousands of U.S. personnel from the American embassy in Saigon, Vietnam in 1975, American officials at the U.S. embassy in Kabul were pictured being evacuated via helicopter amid the rapid fall of the Afghan government to Taliban forces.

Sensitive documents were destroyed and the American flag was lowered at the embassy, while officials were transported to the Kabul airport and heavily-defended Green Zone.

As of Monday the Taliban entered Kabul and occupied the presidential palace practically without resistance after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

The situation has continued to rapidly deteriorate.

Flights at the Kabul airport were reportedly grounded after Afghan citizens broke through security onto the tarmac in a desperate attempt to flee the country. Reports indicate that several Afghan citizens fell to their deaths after clinging onto planes taking off from the airport.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reported Monday morning that national security advisers with the Biden administration “have made clear… they don’t consider the airport secure right now.”

Hours later the Wall Street Journal reported that armed men had been shot and killed after they approached American troops helping with the evacuation effort.

“U.S. troops shot and killed two armed men at Kabul’s international airport, according to a U.S. official,” the Journal reported.

“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.”

In July President Biden dismissed concerns that the Afghan government would collapse following the drawdown of U.S. troops, telling reporters that it was “not true” that the administration’s intelligence community foresaw the crumbling of the regime.

“That is not true,” Biden said. “They did not — they didn’t — did not reach that conclusion.”

“The Afghan government and leadership has to come together,” Biden continued. “It’s not a question of whether they have the capacity.  They have the capacity.  They have the forces.  They have the equipment.  The question is: Will they do it?”

Biden said that the U.S. would not simply “walk away” and fail to sustain the Afghan government, adding “[w]e’re going to also work to make sure we help them in terms of everything from food necessities and other things in — in the region.”

“The likelihood there’s going to be one unified government in Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikely,” the president added.

Biden also dismissed allegations that a withdrawal from Kabul would be akin to the disastrous evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Saigon in 1975.

“The Taliban is not the south—the North Vietnamese army,” Biden alleged. “They’re not—they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the—of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

Images of U.S. officials being airlifted via helicopter from the Kabul embassy have been juxtaposed beside shots of the Saigon evacuation on social media, along with Biden’s statements arguing that what took place over the weekend would not occur.

Biden was not the only official to inadvertently predict the unfortunate turn of events in Afghanistan. Speaking at a House Foreign Affairs Committee in June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. embassy would remain in Kabul, and expressed his view that “a significant deterioration in security” in Afghanistan would not occur “from a Friday to a Monday.”

“I don’t think the fact that our forces are withdrawing – one, we’re not withdrawing, we’re staying. The embassy’s staying, our programs are staying, we’re working to make sure that other partners stay, we’re building all of that up,” Blinken said. “

And whatever happens in Afghanistan, if there is a significant deterioration in security – that could well happen. We’ve discussed this before. I don’t think it’s going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday.”

While the Biden administration’s actions appear to have caused chaos in Afghanistan and a poor image of U.S. foreign policy, the roots of the current crisis go back further than the current administration.

 

The Biden administration accelerated the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops last month, after former president Donald Trump signed a withdrawal agreement in February 2020.

Biden initially planned to leave 650 troops in Kabul to defend the American embassy, but after the fallout from the drawdown led to almost immediate occupation of the city by the Taliban, 4,000 troops have been sent out to aid in the evacuation efforts.

Former Afghanistan ambassador Ryan Crocker, who earned a Presidential Medal of Freedom during his four-decade career in which he served as a U.S. ambassador in six countries, told the Spokesman-Review the swift deterioration of Afghanistan was a long time in the making.

“We’ve spent the last almost two years delegitimizing the Afghan government and its security forces,” he said. “It has destroyed the morale of the government and certainly of its security forces.”

The unfolding chaos in Afghanistan has caused massive backlash in the U.S., particularly as Biden has thus far failed to give a public statement and has remained on vacation at Camp David in Maryland. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has also been unavailable for comment, with FOX News reporting that Psaki will be out of the office until August 22.

Former President Donald Trump, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and even members of the legacy media have criticized the Biden administration’s silence and handling of the situation, with some calling for the invocation of the 25th amendment to remove President Biden from office.

The president is set to address the nation at 3:45pm EST Monday.