Stop lying about Afghanistan, Kamala — your weakness wrecked Trump’s plan

 Too often, lying and politics go hand in hand. But lying to cover up responsibility for the deaths of 13 brave Americans in Afghanistan is reprehensible and dishonors their memory. 

Kamala Harris is rewriting history and gaslighting the American public to shift blame from her administration’s failed policy in Afghanistan that created death and chaos and turned that country — and billions of dollars of US military assets — over to the Taliban.  

Their failure in Afghanistan led to the destruction of American credibility in the world — and led directly to Iran attacking our ally Israel and Russia invading our ally Ukraine in Europe.

Four years ago the world was, objectively, a safer place. 

Putin hadn’t invaded Ukraine. Iran was incapable of providing weapons to Russia to kill innocent Ukrainians. Hamas, with the support and direction of Iran, hadn’t murdered Israelis and Americans. China wasn’t saber-rattling against Taiwan and ramming Philippine ships. 

And, vitally, Afghanistan hadn’t seen an American casualty for over a year as our military continued to draw down responsibly and strategically. 

The foreign-policy failures of the Biden-Harris administration are staggering, but instead of accountability, Harris has decided to blame, deflect and outright lie to propel her career forward. 

Americans deserve better. They deserve the truth.

First, let’s be clear about the facts. President Trump was the first person who wanted our military servicemembers to come home.

Still, he knew we had to do it in a responsible way that ensured our military stayed safe, the gains that were achieved at American expense — including for women and girls — could be maintained and Afghanistan couldn’t once again be used as a base of operations against America or her interests.  

While our goal was to bring every American soldier home, the facts on the ground, as well as the recommendations from our military and intelligence services, did not support abandoning Bagram Air Base and taking the last uniformed service members out of the country. 

This was still true less than a year later, when Biden and Harris decided to withdraw our military in a matter of days. 

And those two knew it. The resulting disaster was entirely predictable.

During the final year of the Trump administration, conditions were improving in Afghanistan and the Taliban was in check — indeed, it knew it had to abide by our conditions for withdrawal, otherwise there would have been swift and harsh consequences. 

The plan the Trump administration produced — and left for the incoming administration — was working. 

But that plan did not lock the next administration into a timetable or date certain for total withdrawal, as Harris claims.  

For the Harris campaign to now claim that we left them with “zero plans for an orderly withdrawal” is a lie.

The detailed plan we left was a conditions-based approach that required all parties — including both the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban — to meet the stipulations of a durable agreement that left a stable Afghanistan where human rights, particularly those of women, were respected.

Biden and Harris abandoned this plan, putting the fulfillment of a campaign promise above the security of the Afghan people and our own.  They rushed for the exits against the advice of senior military members. 

Our plan also included a signed simultaneous agreement with the government of Afghanistan. For the Harris campaign to now claim that we entered an agreement with the Taliban without discussing it with the Afghan government is fiction.

Harris’ campaign also claims that we gave the Taliban permission to attack Americans if we did not withdraw. Again, that’s fiction. 

In our negotiations with the Taliban, the Trump administration successfully established a model of deterrence that kept Americans safe. 

We drew clear lines, and the Taliban understood that it was dealing with an administration that would enforce those lines.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the ones responsible for the deadly attacks on US forces that occurred during the withdrawal. 

They exuded weakness and invited aggression by announcing a date certain and removing the military first from the country, allowing chaos and the Taliban to reign in Afghanistan.

Lastly, the Harris campaign is claiming that the Trump administration’s agreements in the region tied its hands. This is completely absurd.

Since our plan was conditions-based, she and Biden could have established a timeline based on those conditions and continued an orderly drawdown.

Instead, they locked the US into a certain withdrawal date by publicly announcing it in April 2021. 

Ironically, America would have been better off if Biden and Harris had followed all that we did to keep America safe, from our southern border to the Middle East. 

For Harris to say their hands were tied in Afghanistan belies the reality of what they did in every other theater of conflict.

Biden and Harris’ decision to leave in a way that put our soldiers at risk had nothing to do with honoring our agreement: They didn’t follow through with our agreement.  

This was a political decision made by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who have no idea how to keep our soldiers safe or how to maintain the United States’ deterrence.

It was a stunning and tragic failure — made even worse by their efforts to simply sweep it under the rug and act as if it didn’t happen.

This “surrender” did not occur when the Trump administration signed an agreement outlining the conditions for an orderly withdrawal of our forces.

The surrender occurred when the decision was made to leave before the conditions were right — when Harris was “the last person in the room.”

This November, Americans should consider what will happen if Kamala Harris is elected our commander-in-chief and is truly the last person in the room when countless American lives are on the line.

Mike Pompeo was US secretary of state from 2018 to 2021.

https://nypost.com/2024/09/12/opinion/harris-biden-weakness-wrecked-trumps-afghanistan-plan/