Intelligence Warned of Afghan Military Collapse, Despite Biden's Assurances

[Zorro]

Even as the president was telling the public that Kabul was unlikely to fall, intelligence assessments painted a grimmer picture.

WASHINGTON — Classified assessments by American spy agencies over the summer painted an increasingly grim picture of the prospect of a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and warned of the rapid collapse of the Afghan military, even as President Biden and his advisers said publicly that was unlikely to happen as quickly, according to current and former American government officials.

By July, many intelligence reports grew more pessimistic, questioning whether any Afghan security forces would muster serious resistance and whether the government could hold on in Kabul, the capital. President Biden said on July 8 that the Afghan government was unlikely to fall and that there would be no chaotic evacuations of Americans similar to the end of the Vietnam War.

The drumbeat of warnings over the summer raise questions about why Biden administration officials, and military planners in Afghanistan, seemed ill-prepared to deal with the Taliban’s final push into Kabul, including a failure to ensure security at the main airport and rushing thousands more troops back to the country to protect the United States’ final exit.

One report in July — as dozens of Afghan districts were falling and Taliban fighters were laying siege to several major cities — laid out the growing risks to Kabul, noting that the Afghan government was unprepared for a Taliban assault, according to a person familiar with the intelligence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/us/politics/afghanistan-biden-administration.html

[Skittles]

5. anyone who talked to troops on the ground would know what would happen

they seemed VERY unprepared for what has always been INVEVITABLE

[WHITT]

3. BUT

The U.S. military was telling their Commander in Chief that they trained a 300,000 man Afghan army that had plenty of weaponry and their own air force, therefore Biden assumed there would be plenty of time for an orderly evacuation and withdrawal, while the Afghans kept the Taliban at bay.

[Skittles]

6. all you had to do was talk to the troops on the ground

to find out that was absolute bullshit

[Skittles]

9. it's not like Joe is new to this

he was VP for eight years while that POS war was going on

[Skittles]

11. I would have talked to the soldiers on the ground

you know, the ones who actually know

[Skittles]

13. how hard is it to talk to the soldiers

I DID and I knew how hopeless the situation was.

[Skittles]

15. I've been sending care packages since 2005

jeez, we were still in Afghanistan after TWENTY YEARS - that should have been a clue

OVER AND OUT