Kuwait urges restraint on Afghanistan

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Biden stunned by takeover … Seven dead in airport chaos

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 16, (Agencies): Kuwait on Monday said it is “gravely concerned” over the developments in Afghanistan, urging all parties involved to exercise maximum restraint in order to save lives and ensure the smooth exodus of foreign diplomats. Preserving the security and stability of Afghanistan, in addition to protecting the rights of its people, require a collective effort on the part of all those involved, the foreign ministry underlined in a statement. US President Joe Biden was to return to the White House Monday to address the nation on the US evacuation from Afghanistan, a day after the Taliban took control of the country.

The White House says Biden was to travel back to Washington from the Camp David presidential retreat to speak on Monday afternoon from the East Room. It will be his first public remarks on the Afghanistan situation in nearly a week. Biden and other top US officials have been stunned by the pace of the Taliban’s nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan, as the planned withdrawal of American forces turned deadly at Kabul’s airport Monday as thousands tried to flee the country. Senior US military officials say the chaos at the airport left seven people dead, including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss ongoing operations. Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of the capital’s airport Monday as thousands tried to flee after the Taliban seized power with stunning speed. Some clung to the side of a US military plane before takeoff, in a widely shared video that captured the sense of desperation as America’s 20-year war comes to a chaotic end. Another video showed the Afghans falling as the plane gained altitude over Kabul. The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief, and he was the subject of withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failed.

Chaotic scenes unfolded at the Kabul airport Monday as Afghans tried desperately to find space on departing military flights, with the US resorting to firing warning shots and using helicopters to clear a path for transport aircraft. Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20-year war, a conflict that demonstrated the limits of money and military might to force a Westernstyle democracy on a society not ready or willing to embrace it. By Sunday, though, leading figures in the administration acknowledged they were caught off guard with the utter speed of the collapse of Afghan security forces.

The challenge of that effort became clear after reports of sporadic gunfire at the Kabul airport prompted Americans to shelter as they awaited flights to safety after the US Embassy was completely evacuated. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday that Afghanistan fell faster than the administration expected, and blamed the government’s fall on the Afghans themselves. “It is certainly the case that the speed with which cities fell was much greater than anyone anticipated,” Sullivan said Monday on NBC’s “Today.” But he said the US ultimately could not give Afghan security forces the “will” to fight to defend their fledgling democracy from the Taliban. “At the end of the day, despite the fact that we spent 20 years and tens of billions of dollars to give the best equipment, the best training and the best capacity to the Afghan security forces, we could not give them the will and they ultimately decided that they would not fight for Kabul and they would not fight for the country,” Sullivan said.

The turmoil in Afghanistan resets the focus in an unwelcome way for a president who has largely focused on a domestic agenda that includes emerging from the pandemic, winning congressional approval for trillions of dollars in infrastructure spending and protecting voting rights. Biden remained at Camp David on Monday, receiving regular briefings on Afghanistan and holding secure video conference calls with members of his national security team, according to senior White House officials. His administration released a single photo of the president on Sunday alone in a conference room meeting virtually with military, diplomatic and intelligence experts. Sullivan said Biden would speak about Afghanistan “soon” but gave no timetable. Biden has been at the Camp David presidential retreat, and largely out of public view, since Friday. He was scheduled to stay there through Wednesday.

“At the right point he will absolutely address the American people,” Sullivan told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Biden is the fourth US president to confront challenges in Afghanistan and has insisted he wouldn’t hand America’s longest war to his successor. But the president will likely have to explain how security in Afghanistan unraveled so quickly, especially since he and others in the administration have insisted it wouldn’t happen. “The jury is still out, but the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden said on July 8. As recently as last week, Biden publicly expressed hope that Afghan forces could develop the will to defend their country. But privately, administration officials warned that the military was crumbling, prompting Biden on Thursday to order thousands of American troops into the region to speed up evacuation plans. One official said Biden was more sanguine on projections for the Afghan fighters to hold off the Taliban in part to prevent a further erosion in morale among their force. It was ultimately for naught. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump also yearned to leave Afghanistan, but ultimately stood down in the face of resistance from military leaders and other political concerns. Biden, on the other hand, has been steadfast in his refusal to change the Aug. 31 deadline, in part because of his belief that the American public is on his side.

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