As President Joe Biden addressed the nation Monday afternoon about the U.S. military pullout from Afghanistan. He made the point there’s never a good time for a military withdrawal. However, the speed of the Taliban’s takeover of the country is troubling to West Michigan’s congressional leaders.
On Twitter, U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga posted “POTUS is finally speaking and his first point is this collapse of Kabul was planned for?!?! And for the record, he opposed taking out Osama Bin Laden in the final operation.” The Zeeland Republican adding, “The speech by @POTUS is disconnected from the realities on the ground of Afghanistan. “The buck stops with me” is what he said after he blamed the Afghan troops, that history of the region and every previous president, including the one he served as VP.”
U.S. Rep. Peter Meijer is a member of the U.S. Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees, on Fox News said, “I think the assumption had been that we would have six to nine months that the Afghan government would stay in place. That there would be military forces fighting. Clearly, they collapsed within a matter of days.” The Grand Rapids Republican adding, “The entirety of the Biden Administration’s strategy was predicated on having that window of time to complete this military withdrawal. That we didn’t even get to the beginning of that withdrawal until the Taliban were in the Presidential Palace. So, at every stage, we have underestimated the Taliban, overestimated the Afghan government and what we’re seeing right now is the consequences of that failure to appreciate the magnitude of this situation.”
On Twitter, Meijer says the priority now, is to evacuate American citizens & Afghans who served alongside us.