'American Men and Women Would Have Been Fighting and Dying Once Again'
National Security Adviser paints grim picture if US forces would have stayed in Afghanistan
The American public has been bombarded by a cascade of chaotic, and increasingly heart-wrenching, scenes coming out of Afghanistan in recent days as the hardline Taliban secured their oppressive, brutal grip over the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Between that and the steady drumbeat of criticism of President Biden over his handling of US policy towards Afghanistan, some have been left wondering whether perhaps US forces should have continued to occupy the remote central Asian nation.
Yet White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan painted a grim picture if US forces were to remain in Afghanistan.
The ultimate withdrawal of US troops was negotiated by the Trump administration, which also cut the number of troops in country from 15,000 to just 2,500 before Biden took office in January.
“And even at 15,000, the Afghan government forces were losing ground,” Sullivan told reporters Tuesday at the White House briefing room. “What has unfolded over the past month has proven decisively that it would have taken a significant American troop presence — multiple times greater than what President Biden was handed — to stop a Taliban onslaught.
“And we would have taken casualties,” Sullivan added. “American men and women would have been fighting and dying once again in Afghanistan, and President Biden was not prepared to send additional forces or ask any American personnel to do that over the period ahead.”
“A lot of hard calls”
Sullivan added that the Afghan government, now deposed, made a “passionate case” to the Biden administration that it should not conduct a mass evacuation lest it trigger a loss of confidence in the Afghan government.
“Now, our signaling support for the government obviously did not save the government, but this was a considered judgment,” Sullivan said.
The Biden administration was not taken as flat-footed as its being portrayed by political opponents, according to Sullivan.
“When you conclude 20 years of military action in a civil war in another country with the impacts of 20 years of decisions that have piled up, you have to make a lot of hard calls, none with clean outcomes,” he said. “What you can do is plan for all contingencies. We did that.
“The American forces now on the ground at [the international airport in Kabul] are there because of contingency planning and drilling we did over the course of months, preparing for a range of scenarios, including dire scenarios,” Sullivan added.
And Sullivan acknowledged how everything going on in Afghanistan appeared chaotic and tumultuous.
“Yes, there were chaotic scenes yesterday. But as Admiral Kirby said, even well drawn plans don’t survive first contact with reality and they require adjustments,” he said, referring to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. “And we’ve made those adjustments.
“We will stay in close touch with our allies and partners in the days ahead as we contend with the immediate need to complete the evacuation mission and as we deal with the broader challenges posed by the new reality in Afghanistan,” Sullivan added. “And we will remain persistently vigilant against the terrorism threat in Afghanistan and in multiple other theaters across multiple continents.”
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