Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is declaring that President Joe Biden has “no one to blame for this debacle” in Afghanistan “but himself.”
Responding to Biden’s speech on Monday, Graham said in a statement, “President Biden chose a dangerous and dishonorable path in Afghanistan, and he has no one to blame for this debacle but himself,” according to Fox News.
The Republican senator continued, “With today’s speech, President Biden reinforced the view he still does not understand the War on Terror or how to protect America from the threat of radical Islam.”
“The speech was a pathetic attempt to shift blame and an unnerving analysis of the situation he – and he alone – created. Contrary to what he may say or think, President Biden has not ended the war in Afghanistan. He is simply creating a new chapter – one that will be filled by Taliban thugs and al-Qaeda murderers.”
(Graham interview)
Biden delivered an address on Monday at the White House where the president said he stands “squarely behind” his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, as IJR reported on.
His remarks came as the Afghanistan government collapsed.
Biden also blamed the Afghanistan crisis on former President Donald Trump. He said, “When I came into office, I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban.”
He continued, “The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement, or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season. There would have been no cease-fire after May 1. There was no agreement protecting our forces after May 1. There was no status quo of stability without American casualties after May 1. There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat.”
“I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way, that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces,” the president said.
Biden also admitted that the situation in Afghanistan “did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.”
“Afghan political leaders gave up and left the country. The Afghan military collapsed… If anything the developments of the past week reinforced that ending military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision,” he said. “American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”
There has been finger pointing between Biden and Trump as to who is to blame. Trump even called on Biden to “resign in disgrace.”
As The Hill reports, “The back-and-forth overshadows what experts and former government officials say is a messy situation that both leaders had a hand in creating.”