Originally Posted by
tartare
I thought the CIA and other agencies did see it coming.
Weren't Biden et al warned some time ago that the ANA could capitulate in weeks, even days, but ignored the advice?
Noting it's the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...liban-takeover
Both the Trump and Biden administrations were warned by US intelligence that the Afghan army’s resistance to the Taliban could collapse “within days” after an over-hasty withdrawal, according to a former CIA counter-terrorism chief.
Call me naïve - but I tend to believe the spooks here.
Here is a quote from the transcript of President Biden's speech today:
In April, I made a decision to end this war. As part of that decision, we set the date of August 31 for American troops to withdraw. The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan national security forces that we had trained over the past two decades, and equipped, would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban. That assumption that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown turned out not to be accurate.
But I still instructed our national security team to prepare for every eventuality, even that one. And that’s what we did. So, we were ready.
When the Afghan security forces – after two decades of fighting for their country, and losing thousands of their own – did not hold on as long as anyone expected, we were ready when they, the people of Afghanistan, watched their own government collapse, and the president flee, amid the corruption and malfeasance, handing over the country to their enemy, the Taliban and significantly increasing the risk to US personnel and our allies.
As a result, to safely extract American citizens before August 31, as well as embassy personnel, allies and partners, and those Afghans who had worked with us and had fought alongside of us for 20 years, I had authorised 6,000 troops, American troops to Kabul to help secure the airport.