As the Taliban continues to rapidly gain control of territory in Afghanistan, a former State Department official says the situation should not be a surprise to the Biden Administration.
During an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” retired Col. Stephen Gaynard said, “I think that the administration cannot be surprised that Afghanistan is falling, but they’re certainly shocked at how quickly it’s falling.”
He noted that the administration announced plans to send about 3,000 troops to Afghanistan and 4,000 to the region to help evacuate Americans from the country.
“So, surprising, no. Shocking, yes,” Gaynard added.
He noted that there are concerns that the Afghan government will collapse and the Taliban will overrun Kabul, Afghanistan, the nation’s capital.
When asked if the Biden administration misjudged the situation, Gaynard said, “They may have misjudged the effect of the announcement that the U.S. was leaving.”
He added:
“Candidate-Biden and President Biden made it very clear that the U.S. was getting out of Afghanistan. So the real shock may have come when it was it was a definitive, ‘We are leaving.’ And you think about if when you’re an Afghan troop out in the field where your government does not have the support of the people. That effect on the morale, both the government and the people, trying to defend may have been sort of the last straw and precipitated the eventual downfall of the country.”
Watch the video below:
“The administration cannot be surprised that Afghanistan is falling but they’re certainly shocked by how quickly it’s falling.”
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 13, 2021
Col. Stephen Ganyard weighs in on the growing Afghanistan crisis and what the risks are as the U.S. sends in 3,000 troops. https://t.co/k7s7TwzT8Y pic.twitter.com/2sc6jS1cjO
As The Wall Street Journal reports, “The accelerating Taliban victories have demoralized Afghan government forces and sown fears in Kabul that it is only a matter of days or weeks before the insurgents mount a large-scale attack on the nation’s capital, home to six million people.”
Additionally, the Journal notes that the Taliban now controls at least nine of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals and controls more than half of its roughly 400 districts.
The Taliban’s advance comes as the U.S. nears the completion of the withdrawal President Joe Biden announced earlier this year.
In July, Biden defended his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan as he said, “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build.”
“It’s up to the Afghans to make decisions about the future of their country,” he added.