Former CIA analyst Matt Zeller is one of the many critics of Democratic President Joe Biden, whose decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan has caused the Taliban militant group to seize back the country. Chaos ensued in the country's capital of Kabul, where Taliban forces have taken control.
Breitbart reported how Zeller had long been campaigning for a smooth transition to enable the Afghan government and military to be able to defend itself from the Taliban. Instead, the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops left Afghanistan defenseless against the Taliban, which for years had planned the take back from the shadows.
He lamented to Nicolle Wallace of MSNBC's "Deadline" that nobody listened to him when he called for a rigorous plan to evacuate Americans in Afghanistan because the Taliban takeover was bound to happen.
"I was appalled. There was such a profound bald-faced lie in that speech, the idea we planned for every contingency?" Zeller said in response to Biden's speech with regards to the Taliban takeover.
Zeller claims he had long been urging the Biden administration to develop a better plan to get Americans home safely. Instead, there are about 10,000 Americans now waiting to be rescued in Afghanistan, where Taliban forces have taken control. The Daily Mail's estimates have gone up to 40,000.
Josh Rogin wrote for the Washington Post (WaPo) that the situation in Afghanistan's Kabul "continues to deteriorate," where "thousands of U.S. citizens are trapped in and around Kabul with no ability to get to the airport." There are an estimated 10,000 U.S. citizens left in Afghanistan, a number of which are hoping they are not captured by the Taliban forces.
"The Biden administration needs a plan to get our fellow Americans out," Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said, revealing that his office was contacted by over 100 Americans who were seeking help to get out of Afghanistan. The question posed by WaPo is, "why the U.S. withdrawal was so badly mismanaged" and how the Biden administration failed to predict the severity and swiftness of the Taliban in taking back the country with little resistance.
As of Wednesday, President Joe Biden had already ordered 7,000 U.S. troops to head back to Afghanistan to assist in ensuring that the American citizens and the Afghan people are safe. But five U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity believe that it was too late. These officials said that for weeks before the Afghan government collapsed, the U.S. military was pushing to play a "bigger role" in evacuating "Afghans at risk" because they worked for the U.S.
An unnamed military official went on record to say, "We could have done a lot more to help. The administration waited too long."
Another official said that "Every decision has come too late and in reaction to events that make the subsequent decision obsolete."
This was evident in the response of the U.S. throughout this week. Breitbart reported how former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley criticized President Biden's leadership, saying, "It is not always what we do - it's how we do it. And he failed miserably. He humiliated America, and the world sees us as less safe right now, and that's all because of Biden. It's tragic."
Even Democratic Senator Tom Carper from President Biden's hometown of Delaware criticized the Commander in Chief's failure to "carefully [plan]" the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan "to ensure that the hard-fought progress gained over the past two decades -particularly when it comes to Afghan women and girls - would not be lost."
