Washington. August 16. INTERFAX-US President Joe Biden, having failed to cope with the situation in Afghanistan, suffered one of the most brutal defeats in American history, former President Donald Trump said.
"What Biden did to Afghanistan is something legendary. This will go down in history as one of the most brutal defeats in American history," the Western media quoted the former US president as saying.
Initially, it was Trump who agreed with the Taliban movement (banned in the Russian Federation) on the complete withdrawal, under certain conditions, of the American military contingent from Afghanistan. In exchange for this, the Taliban pledged, among other things, to fight against terrorism, to conduct an inter-Afghan dialogue for a truce and a peaceful solution to the crisis.
The implementation of this agreement, basically, became the task not of Trump, but of the Biden administration: as a result, it decided not to abandon these agreements, but postponed the completion of the withdrawal of troops from Afghan territory for several months.
The Taliban, for their part, have stepped up attacks on government troops: This trend was visible even under Trump, but it has significantly increased under Biden. The apotheosis came earlier in August 2021: the Taliban began capturing major Afghan cities, and often achieved victory without serious fighting. On Sunday, the rebels surrounded Kabul, the last major city in the country that remained under the control of the Afghan authorities. Late on Sunday evening, the Taliban fighters entered the city and now, in general, control it.
The US military provides security for the Kabul airport, where foreigners are being evacuated from Afghanistan, as well as some Afghans who have received asylum abroad.
In the current American administration, trying to explain what is happening in Afghanistan, in recent months they have often been reminded that they "inherited" this problem from the previous administration. Nevertheless, observers note that it was Biden, not Trump, who was responsible, for example, for organizing the withdrawal of troops and for calculating the consequences. Western media and some experts emphasize that the speed and ease with which the Taliban conquered Afghanistan, apparently, came as a surprise to the current American authorities.
