General Petraeus Condemns Biden’s Withdrawal From Afghanistan

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Joe Biden’s vision for the U.S. military conflicts with what members of the armed forces have in mind when it comes to strategy.

Without the full backing of the military, Biden now faces harsh criticism from a former member of the army’s top brass for his plans in Afghanistan.

David Petraeus, the general who once commanded the U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan and later served as the director of the CIA, condemned the Biden administration’s management of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He told CNN that he feared that “we would look back and regret the decision to withdraw.”

CNN host Fareed Zakaria asked Petraeus for his assessment of the situation, highlighting the fact that the Taliban now controls 85 percent of the country amid the pullout of coalition forces led by the United States.

“You hear these claims that the Taliban controls 85 percent of the country, but as you and I know, that’s geography,” said Zakaria. “They don’t control the major cities where most of the people live. So give us a lay of the land. How likely is it that they will control the entire country?”

“Well, I’m not sure that they’ll take the entire country, Fareed, but the situation on the ground has become increasingly dire with each passing week,” replied the general. “You see them now on the outskirts fighting in some of the outer areas of Kandahar City, arguably the second most important city in all of Afghanistan.”

“And let me say upfront if I could, in addition to just it’s great to be with you again, that no one wants to see endless wars ended more than those who have actually served in them, but we are not ending this endless war, we are ending U.S. involvement in it,” Petraeus continued.

“Because we end the involvement of the 3500 U.S. troops, we’re also seeing over 8,000 NATO troops leave and we’re seeing some 15,000 or so contractors leave as well,” he added. “And they’re critical to maintaining the Afghan Air Force, which is essential to ensure that Afghan soldiers realize that someone is coming to the rescue with additional troops and with close air support. Gradually that air force is already being degraded in its operational readiness. It’s flying at an astronomical tempo in a country that is very vast with very high mountains and I fear that we will look back and regret the decision to withdraw.”

“And I think sadly, we may regret that sooner than I had originally thought when I said that right after the decision was announced,” Petraeus suggested.

“Beyond that, I think we will also look back and regret the hasty way in which we seem to be doing this, with no plan yet … But what I see now, sadly, is the onset of what is going to be quite a brutal civil war, considerable ethnic and sectarian displacement, the assassination of government officials, millions of refugees flooding into other countries, particularly Pakistan. We will see the return of al Qaeda and the Islamic State, although I don’t see an immediate domestic security threat for the U.S. in that regard,” he added.

Zakaria asked Petraeus about what he would say to Americans who point out that U.S. forces have been in Afghanistan for 20 years, having spent $2 trillion in the war effort, which included training the Afghan National Army and paid for the government’s entire budget for the past two decade – all for the entire effort to collapse the moment the Taliban moved to seize Kandahar without much of a resistance.

General Petraeus Slams Biden’s ‘Hasty’ Withdrawal From Afghanistan https://t.co/CQpNZF2cHP pic.twitter.com/8EHRC70iDi

— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 19, 2021

Former commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan Gen Petraeus tells ⁦@FareedZakaria⁩ why he opposes the Biden administration’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. https://t.co/H1z0cRqzJf

— Nayanima Basu (@NayanimaBasu) July 19, 2021

Petraeus responded that both his son and daughter-in-law served in Afghanistan.

“We halted the momentum of the Taliban,” he said. “….We accelerated the training of the Afghan National Security Forces, and we began the process of transition of tasks slowly from our forces to Afghan forces, and that worked well for a number of years.”

“Look, we aren’t on the front lines anymore,” he added. “So there’s not a great deal, and I guess they could rocket our bases a bit more. But again, what we are doing is enabling the Afghan National Security Forces with advice, assistance, close air support, lots of drones. … We have to recognize, we have to continue to combat the Islamist extremist with a sustained sustainable commitment and that should be the way we go at these. You can’t win them. You can manage them.”

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