Now that we are seeing the United States withdrawing from Afghanistan and the Taliban swiftly rushing in to take their place, it looks like the Biden Administration is facing criticism, even from some former Obama officials!
Brett Bruen, who worked for President Obama as a Director of Global Engagement, wrote in an opinion piece that believes that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan should be relieved of his duties.
“The disaster that unfolded in Afghanistan is illustrative of other major issues at the White House. The people, plans and processes the president has put in place to keep America safe are not working,” Bruen declared.
In a nutshell, Bruen believes that Sullivan and the others connected with the bungled U.S. military pull-out of Afghanistan should be let go.
“Yes, we were always going to pull out. It was a question of how and when. Both of those were decisions that Sullivan had to use his role to carefully guide,” Bruen wrote.
“Unfortunately, it seems he allowed the president’s push for an end to our involvement in the country ahead of Sept. 11 to drive the American timeline. That was a catastrophic error. Our people were unprepared. We failed to get them out of harm’s way. The Afghan government and military clearly were not ready, either,” Bruen Continued.
“President Biden needs to fire his national security adviser and several other senior leaders who oversaw the botched execution of our withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has to restructure how and with whom he is making major foreign policy decisions, allowing for more input from career experts,” Bruen concluded.
Ryan Crocker is an individual who has previously served as the ambassador to several notable countries, including Afghanistan, and he expressed concern about the capability of President Biden’s leadership.
“I’m left with some grave questions in my mind about the president’s ability to lead our nation as commander-in-chief,” Crocker told the Spokesman-Review. “To have read this so wrong – or, even worse, to have understood what was likely to happen and not care.”
A growing number of Republican lawmakers are expressing their criticism against Biden.
“The issue isn’t that we left,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) tweeted. “The issue is how we left,” he continued. “On a timetable certain to result in chaos & without a plan in place to prevent the return & resurgence of Al Qaeda.”
“The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan is shameful, a sincere tragedy, and a complete leadership failure by this president—and it was all entirely avoidable,” Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said in a statement. “This mishandled and haphazard withdrawal executed by this president caused so much of the collapse and panic we are witnessing now and is an international embarrassment and a black-eye for our country that will put more Americans and allies in harms’ way while emboldening our adversaries.”
And it isn’t just politicians across the aisle who are up in arms over Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan pull-out. A recent survey of likely voters showed that almost 70% of them disapprove of the way that President Biden handled the pull-out of Afghanistan. Even Obama probably could have done better.