Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) warns that president Joe Biden will be responsible for the ugly aftermath – devastation and killings – of Afghan withdrawal after his administration failed to prepare properly to pull American troops from Afghanistan, New York Post reports.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee pointed that the hub of the American war effort against the Taliban over the past two decades, Bagram Airfield, was vacated by the NATO and US forces without prior notice to the base’s new Afghan commander, which gave looters time to break into the complex and steal items left behind in barracks and storage tents.
McCaul claims that he was recently warned by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s team that the withdrawal of US troops from the country, which the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August, would mark the year of the jihad.
On top of that, according to GOP representative, the White House has put thousands Afghan interpreters, who aided US forces, at risk of retaliation from advancing Taliban forces by creating no plan to protect them.
He’s also worried that 650-strong force that will remain in Afghanistan after the withdrawal, largely to guard diplomats at the US Embassy in Kabul, is hardly enough, reminding of the outcome of Alamo, when 250 Texans fought against 5,000 Mexicans and warning that US forces may be forced to return to the country before too long.
According to BBC, the Taliban warned that any foreign troops remaining after President Biden’s Sept. 11 withdrawal deadline from Afghanistan will be considered an occupying force and Taliban leaders will decide how to respond.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told the BBC that if the United States leave behind their forces against the Doha agreement, referring to the faltering peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan officials, then they’ll react with final decision being with their leadership.
He emphasized that diplomats, foreign civilians or members of non-government organizations left behind would not be targeted.
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