Gen. Keane: Ill-conceived Afghan withdrawal now an embarrassing retreat
Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane says the Taliban have taken advantage of President Biden's announced timeline for a U.S. troop withdrawal.
Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane blamed the Biden administration's "hasty withdrawal" from Afghanistan for the Taliban's takeover of large swaths of the country, telling "Fox & Friends" Friday the "ill-conceived" agenda has become a foreign policy "embarrassment" for the White House.
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JACK KEANE: It's a sad, frustrating moment to watch an ill-conceived -- and I emphasize ill-conceived, hasty withdrawal -- turn into what is now an embarrassing retreat. And why is that? Well, the IG from the Pentagon just reported the Taliban offensive began in May of this year, a month after President Biden made the announcement that we were pulling all U.S. troops out by August 31. The Taliban knew full well that the United States, in that short period of time, had to close seven military bases, that the focus of the U.S. leadership and its troops would be on just that. No time and no resources to help the Afghan security forces during a major Taliban offensive. And by that I mean sustained, decisive air support, which they always had in the past, to stop normal Taliban offensives that occur in that period of time.
Warfare in Afghanistan is seasonal. They start in the spring and it ends in the fall. And the Taliban pack up their bags and go to Pakistan during the winter. So why are we doing a withdrawal right in the middle of the fighting season, in the heart of it? The withdrawal should have been done during, what? The winter. And we should have extended our withdrawal out until sometime next year to get all of that done and make certain that as the Taliban offensive came this year, we were able to provide the resources to counter that offensive.
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