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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell decried President Joe Biden's strategy in Afghanistan as "reckless" and urged the commander in chief to commit more military support to aid the besieged nation.
The Kentucky Republican said Afghanistan, where U.S. forces have been eminently present for 20 years, is "careening toward a massive, predictable, and preventable disaster" as Taliban forces advance and Biden begins to oversee the conclusion of the U.S. military's operation in the country.
“The Biden Administration has reduced U.S. officials to pleading with Islamic extremists to spare our Embassy as they prepare to overrun Kabul," McConnell said in a statement on Thursday. "Absurdly, naively, our government is arguing that bloodshed might hurt the Taliban’s international reputation, as if radical terrorists are anxious about their P.R."
Taliban forces have made significant advances in recent weeks, overtaking multiple provincial capitals and causing worry the Afghan government could eventually be toppled.
The State Department announced on Thursday the deployment of 3,000 U.S. troops to Kabul to assist in the drawdown of U.S. diplomats, a move that McConnell considered a warning.
"The latest news of a further drawdown at our Embassy and a hasty deployment of military forces seem like preparations for the fall of Kabul," he said. "President Biden’s decisions have us hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975," McConnell added, referring to the end of the Vietnam War.
McConnell urged Biden to "commit to providing more support to Afghan forces, starting with close air support beyond August 31st."
"Without it, al Qaeda and the Taliban may celebrate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by burning down our Embassy in Kabul," he said. "If we let the Taliban dominate Afghanistan and al Qaeda return, it will resonate throughout the global jihadist movement."
The Biden administration has defended its Afghanistan strategy amid Taliban advancement, arguing peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have come a long way and that Kabul has to assert a stronger will if it seeks to maintain control.
(MSN)
