The Biden administration is using every tool at its disposal to paint a rosy picture of Afghanistan as a terrorist-free state as the two-year anniversary of its disastrous withdrawal approaches. But a coalition of Afghan generals, diplomats and civil servants is writing to Congress to explain that in reality, “today’s Afghanistan under the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies, is again the greatest terrorist safe haven in the world.”
Following a widely-panned pre-Fourth of July news dump in which the administration admitted no fault for its botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Afghan leaders are specifically faulting Biden for falsely insisting he was “right” that “al-Qaeda would not be [in Afghanistan],” in remarks that the Taliban praised as “an acknowledgment of reality.”
“We categorically rebuke President Biden’s baseless and irresponsible characterization of the relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda,” the Afghan leaders wrote in a letter that is circulating around Hill offices of both parties and which The Spectator obtained. Contradicting Biden, a United Nations report concluded that terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS-K, which is responsible for the bombing that killed thirteen American service members, “have greater freedom of maneuver” under the Taliban.
The letter, spearheaded by General Sami Sadat, a special forces commander of the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command, praises Idaho senator Jim Risch for introducing “[targeted] sanctions against the Taliban.” They request that Congress pass Risch’s bill; “without action,” they warn, “Afghanistan will slide down that very same path that it found itself in prior to 9/11.”
Sadat, a former three-star general who remains on the Taliban’s “Top Three” kill list, and his compatriots emphasize three specific problems plaguing their homeland. “The trend of freedom and prosperity in Afghanistan has been replaced with violence and despair, and the fall of Afghanistan into the hands of the Taliban and their terrorist associates has precipitated three primary disasters,” which are a “Return of Transnational Terrorism,” “Gross Human rights abuses” and “Exploitation and looting of natural resources of Afghanistan.”
In order to defend its positions, the administration also points to its successful drone strike of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan as evidence that it eliminated the terrorist group; however, the signatories argue that Zawahiri’s “ultimate demise by United States drone strike 800 feet away from the former US embassy, is evidence to the sanctuary provided to al-Qaeda and their unbreakable bond with the Taliban.”
The State Department’s controversial after-action Afghanistan report was heavily redacted, prompting concern from Republicans who work on foreign policy. “Last week’s heavily redacted State Department report only further enforced the complete disaster that President Biden’s hasty Afghanistan withdrawal proved to be,” Kentucky representative Andy Barr told The Spectator.
Close observers see two goals of the Biden administration: saving face for the humiliation it faced following the withdrawal and paving the way for recognition of the Taliban government down the road.
Florida representative Mike Waltz, the first Green Beret in Congress, is particularly concerned about any form of normalizing the Taliban. “It’s insane and dangerous that the Biden administration is creeping towards normalizing the Taliban,” the decorated combat vet told me. “Having fought these ruthless killers, I can tell you there is little difference between the murderous ideologies of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In fact, senior Taliban security officials are the primary enablers of al-Qaeda.”
The letter, however, is likely to receive a frosty reception from Biden’s allies. One senior Republican staffer who works closely on Afghanistan policy said that Democrats need to keep Afghanistan on the back burner. “There’s no way to spin the way Biden marched thirteen soldiers to their deaths in Kabul or abandoned hundreds of American citizens, after promising that he wouldn’t. That’s why Democrats long ago turned the page on Afghanistan — and turned their backs on the families of the fallen.”
On the other hand, Republicans are quick to lambast Biden. New York representative Mike Lawler, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also lamented how much devastation “the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan” left in its wake. “It was devastating to Americans and our Afghan allies alike to see all that we had sacrificed so much for swept away so quickly. Now, those who partnered with us face new horrors as the Taliban marks them public enemy number one.”
As the two-year anniversary of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches, Republicans want to make things as painful as possible for the White House. “Just because Biden left Afghanistan does not mean the terrorists decided to end their war on the West,” Waltz said.
