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Former top general in the Middle East says Biden told that Afghanistan would fall if U.S. pulled out

by | Aug 30, 2022 | 16 comments

A U.S. Chinook evacuates embassy staff from Kabul

Ben Wolfgang – Washington Times Aug 28, 2022

America’s former top general in the Middle East said Sunday he advised President Biden against withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan last summer, and he said that the Pentagon made clear to the White House that a full withdrawal would almost surely lead to a rapid Taliban takeover of the country.

In an interview with “Fox News Sunday,” Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the former chief of U.S. Central Command, said he believes the Taliban could’ve been kept at bay and the U.S.-backed Afghan government could have remained in power had Mr. Biden decided instead to keep a small contingent of American troops in the country.

Gen. McKenzie‘s interview comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which marked the end of the longest-running war in American history and paved the way for the extremist Taliban to reclaim power

“I advised against withdrawing, my recommendation and my opinion, and it remains so today, was we had the opportunity to remain in the country with a small force,” said Gen. McKenzie, who led CENTCOM during the chaotic American military pullout in August 2021.

“We believe that Kabul would fall if we pull out our troops. It was just a question of when Kabul would fall and we have been saying that really since the fall of the year,” before the withdrawal, he said.

“That had been a consistent position of Central Command, our subordinates in Afghanistan, that if we leave, they’re going to collapse. It’s just a question of when they’re going to collapse … This was not a particular surprise to us.”

Gen. McKenzie said he‘s confident Mr. Biden saw those assessments, casting more doubt on why the president made public declarations last summer that he believed the Afghan government would survive and that the Taliban wasn’t capable of overrunning the country so quickly.

“Look, I’m confident that my assessments went up the chain of command. I’m sure the president saw them. The president of [the] United States has to make decisions based on a variety of factors,” Gen. McKenzie said. “My input was certainly one of those factors and I appreciate the opportunity to have had that input, but the president is going to have to make decisions based on a much broader range of considerations.”

The Pentagon has consistently said that Afghanistan, despite the Taliban‘s assurances to the contrary, remains home to Islamic terrorists, including those affiliated with al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

Earlier this month, a U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, fueling questions about whether the Taliban is once again allowing al Qaeda to use Afghanistan as a safe haven.

Asked whether that fact could eventually force American troops back to Afghanistan, Gen. McKenzie seemed to suggest that’s a real possibility.

“I know this — it is in the best long-term interest of the United States to not allow these centers of violent extremism to grow and expand in Afghanistan. And I believe under the current Taliban regime, that’s probably what’s going to happen,” he said.

“The last time I was looking at intelligence, that was a position we had,” Gen. McKenzie said. “I follow it like everybody else does now, in the newspaper and other sources. But I see nothing to change that opinion that the threat is growing in Afghanistan and it’s merely a matter of time.”

Source

 

16 Comments

  1. Carl Jones on August 30, 2022 at 6:48 am

    When this happened, I said it was all planned this way. Afghanistan has been left to rot. Considering the UK was in this country fecking it up, one can only conclude this is a war crime, but, there’s nothing new here.

  4. Peter Petherington on August 30, 2022 at 9:54 am

    Fuggedabout “Afghanistan” collapsing…. try “Iraq” General! 🤯

  5. Goy Buoy on August 30, 2022 at 10:33 am

    This paper of record is not fit to wipe your arse with. And the morons who read it and believe it must be some of the dumbest Americans out there…

    Washington Times you need to die.
    Thought it was a Washington Post article I was reading.
    Anyway, you need to die too.

  6. michaelpaulbo on August 30, 2022 at 10:47 am

    If Leonard Bernstein is the Federal Reserve, then his orchestra melds the bureaucratic instruments of percussion (U.S. military) and woodwinds (the hot air of politics) and stringed instruments (cosmic string-theory of CIA)…
    Taliban is the CIA…
    Opium is the fat-lady singing.
    And we are all dancing a dirge of yore.

  7. fj fj on August 30, 2022 at 11:46 am

    is there ever any group or nation more extreme, terrorist, or evil than the US government? Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie is an unrepentant part and parcel of that evil establishment. by the way, wonder if he is up to date with his jabs. or on protests till all military personnel are forced to get the shot.

  9. Sparks on August 30, 2022 at 1:45 pm

    Only the United States of America can regularly stage such monumental failures as this. The USA has reached the height of incompetence.

  11. cornelius kings lyn on August 30, 2022 at 2:42 pm

    Black london
    there is a phenomenon known as white flight

    this is white folk being pushed out of london
    towns like Taunton in devon cornwall and that area are having masses of white folk move there
    The government has allowed 250 black gangs to move in and take london
    they even have their own flag a black union jack
    the government have betrayed us, their own electorate this is a racist hate crime against their own folk of monumental proportions
    and i blame the dirty jews behind it

  12. Nico X on August 30, 2022 at 3:09 pm

    Get real, as if Biden, some senile cretin is making any ‘decisions’. We already know all these Presidents/PMs (Biden/Boris/Trump/Putin/Trudeau/Macron etc) are simply figureheads for the WEF & the transnational Zionist-Communist Cryptocrats who govern all these nations of the world…

  13. Peter Petherington on August 30, 2022 at 4:02 pm

    @fj fj

    re “is there ever any group or nation more extreme, terrorist, or evil than the US…”

    Ever heard of ZOGUK.. an entity that’s already instigated TWO World Wars… and is currently doing its damnest to kick-start a THIRD? 🙄

  14. Nico X on August 30, 2022 at 10:55 pm

    @cornelius…Colin Jordan 60 years ago foretold the future for Britain, but nobody listened…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGi_wIWRYys

    Only chance now for the white race is to adopt ‘The Book of the Law’, otherwise its all over…