Pompeo denounces Biden administration over Afghanistan crisis
Aug 22, 2021
Washington [US], August 22 : Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday hit out at the US President Joe Biden for the current instability in Afghanistan and handling of the evacuation process from the country, calling it 'a debacle of significant proportion'.
"Today, what President Biden said frankly made it worse. I didn't hear a single thing from him today that would have given comfort to those families. There's still no plan to get these Americans back. I didn't hear a single thing that would give comfort to the very allies you spoke about," The Hill quoted Pompeo as saying with Fox's Sean Hannity on Friday.
"This is a debacle of significant proportions. We haven't seen anything like this, the United States, in an awfully long time. America has the tools to fix this, our military could certainly figure out a way to go get these folks back and to destroy some of these billions of dollars in equipment that we left behind, but it's going to take American resolve and leadership, and President Biden has refused to show this for the entire time," he added.
US President Joe Biden termed the evacuation from Afghanistan the 'most difficult and largest airlift' ever in history on Friday.
"Kabul evacuation is among the largest and most difficult airlifts in history," Biden said while addressing the press at the White House. He added that it's time to end the Afghan mission and get all Americans out as Afghanistan has been taken over by the Taliban after the collapse of the government on Sunday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Biden put the blame for the current situation on the Afghan leaders, saying they gave up and fled the country.
"I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years I have learned the hard way that there was no good time to withdraw US forces," he said.
"We were clear-eyed about the risk. The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated. So what happened. Afghanistan's political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed," he added.
Afghanistan's situation is dwindling as people are in rush to leave the nation after the Taliban seized control last week. On August 15, the country's government fell soon after President Ashraf Ghani left the nation.
