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Americans on Monday mourned the third anniversary of the ISIS-K bombing on Abbey Gate at the Hamid Karzai International Airport amid the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which resulted in the death of 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghans.
The Biden administration has drawn immense condemnation over the chaotic withdrawal and some have argued it even emboldened nations like Russia and Iran to take aggressive steps in countering the West.
“It was the most seminal, serious foreign policy blunder, I think, of the Biden administration, and it set in motion a series of events that we’re dealing with today,” Fox News senior strategic analyst retired Gen. Jack Keane said Monday.
President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken look on as a carry team moves a transfer case with the remain of Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Ind., during a casualty return at Dover Air Force Base, Del., Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, for the 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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The former Army general said he had been informed by people “in the room” with President Biden that, despite warnings of the Taliban’s movements across Afghanistan, the president “defiantly” pushed forward with U.S. plans to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Keane argued the decision not to leave U.S. troops in Afghanistan opened the floodgates for other global conflicts like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Iran’s aggression in the Middle East, particularly against Israel.
“They see it as huge political weakness on our part,” Keane said. “They’ve been coming for us ever since to take advantage of these vulnerabilities, because they clearly see opportunity for themselves.”
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has been accredited to a massive U.S. intelligence failure as the terrorist organization had been gaining traction even in the lead up to the Trump administration’s February 2020 deal with the Taliban, in which the U.S. agreed to completely withdraw troops by May 2021.
Biden, who extended the withdrawal date back to August 2021, said he took responsibility for the Abbey Gate attack, though he also blamed his predecessor for first pulling the U.S. into a bad deal with the Taliban.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff speaks during a ceremony on Christmas Eve at Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul, File)
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“We faced one of two choices: follow the agreement of the previous administration and extend it to have — or extend to more time for people to get out; or send in thousands of more troops and escalate the war,” he said in an August 2021 address to the nation. “To those asking for a third decade of war in Afghanistan, I ask: What is the vital national interest?
“It was time to end this war,” he added.
But the administration is still facing stiff push back to this day, including presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris — who solidified her role in the U.S. withdrawal by telling CNN in a 2021 interview that she was the “last” person in the room with Biden before he made his decision.
“It was the greatest foreign policy blunder of our lifetimes,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-LA, told Fox News Monday. “It led to a series of other events that emboldened our adversaries around the world and allowed the Taliban to take back over.
“We effectively sacrificed 20 years of our effort and servicemen and women who served there. It was a terrible thing,” he added.
In this photo provided by the Department of Defense, American troops are shown helping people to safety. (Department of Defense)
Biden on Monday released a statement memorializing the 13 service members who were killed during that August 2021 attack and said, “They embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill.”
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“Today, our longest war is over. But our commitment to preventing attacks on our homeland — or our people — never will be,” Biden continued. “We will do so without deploying thousands of American troops to ground wars overseas.”
Taliban fighters patrol in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
Harris also released a statement acknowledging the anniversary of the attack on Abbey Gate and reiterated her support for Biden’s decision to withdraw.
“President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war,” she said. “On this solemn day, let us come together as one nation to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice three years ago.
“In their memory, let us re-dedicate ourselves to the cause they gave their lives for: to protect and defend the greatest democracy on Earth, the United States of America,” she added.