https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/17/politics/biden-afghanistan-blame-shifting/index. html

"Factions within the Biden administration are embroiled in a blame game over why the US government didn't act sooner to withdraw American citizens and Afghans who helped the US over two decades of war, leading to a rushed and dangerous evacuation.

"Military officials have said that for weeks they urged the State Department to move faster in evacuating its diplomatic personnel. State Department officials have said they were operating based on intelligence assessments that suggested they had more time, but intelligence officials insist that they had long reported the possibility of a rapid Taliban takeover.

"An intelligence assessment produced within the last month assessed that the Taliban were pursuing a total military victory in Afghanistan, a source familiar with the intelligence said, despite ostensibly negotiating for peace in Doha and even as the administration continued to express confidence in those talks."

"[Biden is] failing to directly address the chaos unfolding on his watch. [...] The scenes evoked images from Saigon in 1975, a comparison the administration promised would not happen."

"Some officials insist that Biden got bad advice from some of his top military and intelligence advisers. [...] Military officials, in turn, have said they were actually prepared for the worst and had been urging the State Department for weeks to begin withdrawing embassy employees in Kabul. [,,,] The officials said they had warned the State Department that a last-minute emergency evacuation -- if needed -- would be more difficult the more staffers remained."

"A State Department official acknowledged there had been real friction with the Pentagon in recent weeks as the department resisted the military's advice to close the US Embassy in Kabul sooner."

"Diplomats are frustrated, too. "Home. Angry," said one who just returned from Afghanistan. Two other US diplomats who served in Afghanistan said the chaos could have been averted, or at least mitigated, if action had been taken sooner to get people out. "

"In defending the withdrawal, Biden and Pentagon officials have repeatedly returned to the capabilities and advantages of the 300,000-strong Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Yet the notion of a coherent Afghan military that could hold its own in a fight appears to have been an $88 billion fiction -- the amount of US taxpayer dollars spent on building up the Afghan military and police. Moreover, it is a myth the US should have seen coming, experts say"

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