President Joe Biden rejected the possibility of a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan earlier this year despite U.S. intelligence officials warning him that Afghanistan could collapse rapidly, according to current and former officials who spoke with<\/a> the New York Times.<\/p>\n By July, many intelligence reports were sharing a dismal view on Afghanistan\u2019s future and intelligence officials questioned whether U.S.-backed Afghan security forces could resist Taliban advances and whether the government could maintain control of the capital city of Kabul, officials said. One intelligence report said if cities in Afghanistan began to fall, it would set off a rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces were at high risk of falling apart.<\/p>\n While intelligence officials shared their analyses, Biden said a scenario where the Taliban took over the whole country was unlikely. In a July 8, White House press briefing<\/a>, Biden said Afghanistan has never been a historically unified country and \u201cthe likelihood there\u2019s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked on July 8 if there were parallels between the South Vietnam government before the fall of Saigon and the Afghan government facing pressure from the Taliban, Biden said there are \u201cnone whatsoever, zero.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the weekend, the Taliban gathered on the outskirts of Kabul, and military helicopters carried out evacuation flights from the U.S. embassy<\/a> in the city, as the Taliban began to enter Kabul.<\/p>\n As the Taliban began to capture dozens of Afghan districts in July, one report described the growing risks surrounding Kabul and said the Afghan government was unprepared for a Taliban assault, one person familiar with the intelligence told the New York Times<\/p>\n While some intelligence reports shared the warning signs for the Afghan government, a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified intelligence reports, said intelligence agencies never offered a clear prediction that a Taliban takeover was imminent. The official said their assessments were also not given a \u201chigh confidence\u201d judgment, the agencies\u2019 highest level of certainty.<\/p>\n One official said that as late as a week before Kabul fell to the Taliban, the overall intelligence analysis was that a Taliban takeover was not yet inevitable. Officials did, however, tell Biden around the time of his July 8 remarks, where he called on Afghan leaders \u201cto come together,\u201d he and aides were privately pressing those Afghan leaders to make concessions that the intelligence reports had indicated would help avoid a government collapse.<\/p>\n Even in the days before Kabul fell, intelligence assessments predicted the Afghan government still had weeks of time ahead. On Wednesday of last week, Reuters\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0a U.S. intelligence analysis projected Kabul wouldn\u2019t fall to the Taliban for another 90 days. A day later, the New York Times\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0intelligence expectations that Kabul would hold out against the Taliban for 30 days. By Sunday, when the Taliban arrived on Kabul\u2019s outskirts, those predictions collapsed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe business of intelligence is not to say you know on Aug. 15 the Afghan government\u2019s going to fall,\u201d Timothy S. Bergreen, a former staff director for the House Intelligence Committee, told the New York Times. \u201cBut what everybody knew is that without the stiffening of the international forces and specifically our forces, the Afghans were incapable of defending or governing themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Bergreen said, \u201cThere was an acknowledgment that the Afghan forces were not up to the long-term fight. But I don\u2019t think anyone expected them to melt away quite that fast.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa Maddox, a former CIA analyst said she was ultimately \u201cnot that surprised\u201d that the Taliban takeover \u201cwas as fast and sweeping as it was.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Taliban certainly has shown their ability to persevere, hunker down and come back even after they have been beaten back,\u201d Maddox said. \u201cAnd you have a population that is so tired and weary of conflict that they are going to flip and support the winning side so they can survive.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Biden-Afghanistan-speech.jpg\")
<\/a>\u201cWhat you had is \u2014 you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy \u2014 six, if I\u2019m not mistaken,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThe Taliban is not the south \u2014 the North Vietnamese army. They\u2019re not remotely comparable in terms of capability.\u00a0There\u2019s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.\u00a0 It is not at all comparable.\u201d<\/p>\n