Sunday, August 15, 2021

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Says Afghanistan Mission ‘Successful.’ Rejects Kabul-Saigon Comparison

 

Daily Mail: Antony Blinken rejects comparison of Afghanistan to Saigon and blames 'inability of Afghan security forces' for Taliban takeover as Republicans say the buck stops with Biden 

* Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected on Sunday any comparisons between the swift evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan to the fall of Saigon 

* 'Let's take a step back. This is manifestly not Saigon,' Blinken insisted when pushed on the disorderly evacuation of U.S. personnel from Kabul by helicopter 

* Blinken said 'the inability of Afghan security forces to defend their country has played a very powerful role in what we've seen over the last few weeks' 

* But Republicans say Biden has the onus for the Taliban take over 

* Trump's former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday 'the Biden administration has failed in the execution on its own plan' 

* 'This President confronted a challenge in Afghanistan – he has utterly failed to protect the American people from this challenge,' he said 

* Biden blamed predecessor Trump for the Taliban's swift seize of Afghanistan 

* 'When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor... that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001,' he wrote in a statement 

* Trump fired back by claiming Biden made the Taliban not fear America's power 

* 'Joe Biden gets it wrong every time on foreign policy, and many other issues,' he wrote. 'Everyone knew he couldn't handle the pressure' 

* Taliban's Islamic militant forces reached Capital City of Kabul on Sunday 

* Biden is sending U.S. 5,000 troops to help with the evacuation of Americans and ally personnel still in Afghanistan 

Antony Blinken insisted Sunday the scene in Afghanistan is not comparable to the fall of Saigon as he diverted blame for the Taliban take over on Trump, Republicans and Afghan security forces. 

The Secretary of State said the images emerging from Afghanistan, including personnel being airlifted out of the embassy in Kabul, is 'standard operating procedure'. 

'This is being done in a very deliberate way. It's being done in an orderly way. 

And it's being done with American forces there to make sure we can do it in a safe way,' he said in an interview with ABC News' This Week on Sunday morning.  

Read more ....  

Update #1: Blinken says Afghanistan mission ‘successful,’ rejects Kabul-Saigon comparison (AFP)  

Update #2: US' Antony Blinken Says Afghanistan Mission 'successful', Rejects Comparison With Saigon (Republic World)  

WNU Editor: Three interviews on three Biden friendly networks and the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken still looked like a deer staring with wide open eyes at the headlights of an approaching car while repeating a bunch of talking points.

2 comments:

Jac said...

Poor Blinken! Being obliged to tell insanity is degrading himself. This "vacation in chief" administration is not able to take the responsibility of its own action. We have an irresponsible administration and, as much as signification the words have, we have to expect worse and worse future.
Also, Biden is not President for long and Kamala Harris will be the next one...but we just don't know what she is thinking, what is her position...nothing.

Anonymous said...

Blinken is an example of highly educated Dunning-Kruger effect

Blinken is a smart guy. He tells himself that he is. He climbed the organizational ladder at State. He is highly placed and valued in the dominant political party. His party has the correct policies. He realizes that not everything will go smoothly. It is not so much because the policies are wrong (He might be a true believer.), but due to bad luck. For the minority of things that go wrong, well they are the minority and they are survivable.

So imagine getting hit with this. It is like a pedestrian stepping out in front of commuter train.

Problem is that people do not study enough other disciplines like military science for example. So this is really a shocker for Anthony. The generals lied, wishfully naive, or incompetent about facts on the ground or Islam. Anthony trusted the political generals to too large of a degree.

I do not feel sorry for Anthony. He is dumb about so many things as Bloomberg is about farming.