Biden pushed Afghanistan president to ‘project a different picture’ weeks before Taliban takeover
WASHINGTON — Less than four weeks before the fall of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden urged Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani to demonstrate a more capable military defense to change the “perception” as the Taliban made significant gains.
Biden relayed that message in a July 23 phone call, according to excerpts reported by Reuters that shed new light on Biden’s thinking before the Taliban on Aug. 15 abruptly seized control of the Afghan government.
Neither leader discussed the threat of an imminent Taliban takeover in their last phone call, but one theme was consistent from Biden: the situation needed to improve to change the optics in the final month before the U.S. was to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden told Ghani, according to a transcript of the 14-minute phone call published by Reuters that matched audio reviewed by the publication.
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That prediction proved wildly incorrect. The Taliban quickly took over Kabul after the Afghan National Security Forces mounted little resistance, prompting Ghani to flee the country. The final U.S. troops left Afghanistan before a self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline, ending a 20-year war after a chaotic withdrawal that included the death of 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghan civilians from an ISIS-K terrorist attack.
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“I don’t know whether you’re aware just how much the perception around the world is that this is looking like a losing proposition,” Biden told Ghani, “which it is not, not that it necessarily is that.”
A defiant Biden on Tuesday, defending his withdrawal, said his assumption that the Afghan army would hold off the Taliban “turned out not to be accurate.”
Biden and Ghani met in person at the White House on June 25. Days before the phone call, the U.S. supported Afghan National Security Forces with airstrikes, a move the Taliban said violated the Doha peace agreement with the U.S.
In the phone call, Biden committed to provide continued U.S. assistance to the Afghan army if Ghani could demonstrate a plan and told his Afghan counterpart that his army is superior to the Taliban.
“You clearly have the best military,” Biden told Ghani, according to the Reuters transcript. “You have 300,000 well-armed forces versus 70-80,000, and they’re clearly capable of fighting well. We will continue to provide close air support, if we know what the plan is and what we are doing. And all the way through the end of August, and who knows what after that.”
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But Ghani didn’t appear to project much confidence back to Biden.