President Biden has betrayed our allies and our troops

For the past 20 years, our men and women have served heroically in Afghanistan to protect both global security and the shared interests of our allies across the world. Now, President Biden risks making their sacrifices all for naught with his most recent display of failed leadership.

Today, during an address from the White House, President Biden doubled down on his questionable approach and emphasized that he has no remorse for the human calamity we are seeing unfold. President Biden has failed the American people, the men and women in uniform, and the people of Afghanistan, including innocent women and children.

Sadly, the atrocities occurring in Afghanistan were entirely predictable and preventable. I have long held that we must bring our troops home from Afghanistan, but this withdrawal needed to be done carefully, delicately, and deliberately with a plan in place to protects our soldiers, allies, and the Afghan people. What’s happening borders on incompetence — and recklessly compromises the safety of Americans and our Afghan friends on the ground.

Last month, President Biden reassured the American people that the Afghanistan government was “well-equipped” to defend themselves against the Taliban and that, “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” Just a few days ago, he went even further — emphasizing that “there’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.” And yet, we’ve seen just that.

Over the past several days, the horrific images have continued to pour in. We have seen terrorists released from prison, the Taliban take control of the Bagram airbase, our embassy personnel told to shelter in place while friends and allies and their families are hunted down in the streets.

Under President Biden’s version of leadership, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan was forced to close as the Taliban converged on Kabul while the interpreters and Afghan soldiers who aided U.S. troops for years are left behind. Taliban leaders are actively seeking out American allies, and women throughout the country — who only recently gained basic human rights and education and who have only just begun to recover from the effects of the Taliban’s repressive regime — are forced into hiding.

Not only is this a complete and utter failure of President Biden’s foreign policy, but it has severe ramifications at home where we are dealing with an ever-escalating border crisis.

President Biden is either guilty of intentional disregard for military and foreign policy advice from all sectors, or gross incompetence. Either way, the American people, our troops who have served abroad for decades, and our allies deserve answers.

President Biden must act now. Rather than doubling down on the “success” of the mission, he must own up to his mistakes, protect our men and women on the ground, assist our Afghan allies, and prevent the resurgence of Al Qaeda before it’s too late.