First of all, the claim that "Trump left us a deadline but not an exit plan" is ludicrous on its face.
A) the "deadline" was dependent on the situation on the ground
2) If Biden's team was too incompetent to come up with a working plan, it's their own durn fault.
HOWEVER.... there's pushback on the claim that "there was no plan" left by Trump....
Key Trump defense official refutes Blinken, says Trump left Afghan withdrawal plan for Biden
A) the "deadline" was dependent on the situation on the ground
2) If Biden's team was too incompetent to come up with a working plan, it's their own durn fault.
HOWEVER.... there's pushback on the claim that "there was no plan" left by Trump....
Key Trump defense official refutes Blinken, says Trump left Afghan withdrawal plan for Biden
Kash Patel, former chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, blasted Secretary of State Antony Blinken for claiming that the Trump administration did not leave President Biden a plan for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On the John Solomon Reports podcast on Thursday, Patel was asked if Blinken accurately told Congress that Trump left Biden a deadline for leaving Afghanistan without a plan. "No, absolutely not," Patel replied.
Criticizing Blinken for playing "politics with the national security apparatus of the United States," Patel, who worked on the transition coordination team, said that the Trump administration did not leave Biden a deadline.
"We actually did not leave them a deadline," he said. "It was a negotiation between the U.S. government, the Taliban, and the Afghans. And if that date was not to work for this incoming administration, they could have moved it.
"But what they chose to do was break the entire agreement. And then they thought, since the adults were back in Washington, D.C., and Blinken and Biden were leading the charge, the world will just fall into place for them. And they blew it in Afghanistan. So I think their credibility's shot when it comes to everything Afghanistan."
Trump's overall plan was to "peacefully negotiate yourself out of Afghanistan with a conditions-based withdrawal," he said. "[A]nd the world knew that was President Trump's plan."
Under the Trump plan, the Taliban and the Afghan government had to meet certain criteria if they wanted the U.S. to help them establish "a peaceful, negotiated government in Afghanistan without U.S. troop presence," Patel explained. "The main component of that was an all-out rejection of al Qaeda and ISIS."
If the Taliban and then-Afghan government wanted U.S. funds, "training and assistance in some form of military presence," they would all "have to sit down at the table with each other, like they were doing in Doha," Patel continued, and the U.S. would assist them in reaching an agreement for an interim government with then-President Ashraf Ghani.
"And they knew that they couldn't cross at least President Trump's threat to rain down on them, should they harm a U.S. personnel or allied member," Patel said. "And that was the difference, really, between our plan and their plan."
On the John Solomon Reports podcast on Thursday, Patel was asked if Blinken accurately told Congress that Trump left Biden a deadline for leaving Afghanistan without a plan. "No, absolutely not," Patel replied.
Criticizing Blinken for playing "politics with the national security apparatus of the United States," Patel, who worked on the transition coordination team, said that the Trump administration did not leave Biden a deadline.
"We actually did not leave them a deadline," he said. "It was a negotiation between the U.S. government, the Taliban, and the Afghans. And if that date was not to work for this incoming administration, they could have moved it.
"But what they chose to do was break the entire agreement. And then they thought, since the adults were back in Washington, D.C., and Blinken and Biden were leading the charge, the world will just fall into place for them. And they blew it in Afghanistan. So I think their credibility's shot when it comes to everything Afghanistan."
Trump's overall plan was to "peacefully negotiate yourself out of Afghanistan with a conditions-based withdrawal," he said. "[A]nd the world knew that was President Trump's plan."
Under the Trump plan, the Taliban and the Afghan government had to meet certain criteria if they wanted the U.S. to help them establish "a peaceful, negotiated government in Afghanistan without U.S. troop presence," Patel explained. "The main component of that was an all-out rejection of al Qaeda and ISIS."
If the Taliban and then-Afghan government wanted U.S. funds, "training and assistance in some form of military presence," they would all "have to sit down at the table with each other, like they were doing in Doha," Patel continued, and the U.S. would assist them in reaching an agreement for an interim government with then-President Ashraf Ghani.
"And they knew that they couldn't cross at least President Trump's threat to rain down on them, should they harm a U.S. personnel or allied member," Patel said. "And that was the difference, really, between our plan and their plan."
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