Washington Post fact check accuses Biden of inflating size of Afghanistan military: 'Bogus'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In media news today, a top Biden aide says he won't 'comment on hypotheticals' when asked if Americans will be left in Afghanistan, a journalist who witnessed the fall of Saigon reacts to the situation in Afghanistan, and Twitter faces scrutiny as Taliban fighters continue using the Big Tech platform
The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler accused President Biden of inflating the numbers after claiming Afghanistan's military is bigger than many NATO allies in a fact check on Wednesday.
Biden was forced to return from Camp David this week to deliver a speech on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Since the exit, the Taliban have regained control of key parts of the country and desperate scenes have captured Afghans trying to flee the terror group. In Biden's address, however, he defended the decision to end U.S. military involvement in the region and argued they left Afghan military in good shape.
"American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves," Biden said on Monday. "We spent over a trillion dollars. We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000 strong — incredibly well equipped — a force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO allies."
Citing data from the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Kessler argued Biden was rounding up the numbers. In a 2021 report, IISS showed Afghanistan with an active force of only 178,800 — 171,500 in the army and 7,300 in the air force.
"This obviously raises the question — how could such a large, 'well-equipped' military fall apart so quickly?" Kessler asked. "It's because this is an inflated number."
The president, Kessler wrote, included police in his 300,000 figure, not regular army or air force. Kessler also argued Biden was not taking into account the reserve forces of NATO countries, whereas no reserves are listed for Afghanistan. Representatives from the Center for the strategic and International Studies told Kessler the number of effective military personnel cannot be determined at this point.
Kessler slapped Three Pinocchios on Biden's assertion, stating in his analysis how Biden barely escaped the worst rating of Four Pinocchios.
"By repeatedly using this figure, the president is misleading Americans about the capabilities of the Afghan military — which has now demonstrated it could not defend Afghanistan from the Taliban offensive," Kessler said. "He does not quite earn Four Pinocchios because 'security forces' sometimes is broadly defined to include the police. But it's close, especially when making a ridiculous comparison to the militaries of NATO allies."
Conservatives and liberals alike hammered the Biden administration for the mess it left in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Critics piled on the president yet again when he ended his speech without taking questions and promptly returned to Camp David.
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Three more Pinocchios for Biden. (It would have been 4 had he not been a democrat!)
Back to the bunker!
No, the Afghan army was never that strong.
Joe Biden somehow had them down as the Wehrmacht.
Watch for all the leaks that will flow from the intelligence agencies stating "WE TOLD HIM!"
And then you have the tongue in cheek sympathizers making somewhat of an excuse for him..........
That is the very thing the Intelligence agencies won't stand for. Watch for those leaks!
Was the Afghan Navy counted?
If the Afghan army was that weak, why did Trump sign a treaty in 2020 that would force the Afghan army to fight for their lives in 2021 ? You trap yourself in your own nonsense.
For one who always desires to prove exactly how smart he is, you fail miserably with four simple words; Trump sign a treaty. Maybe a civics course is in order. A President cannot sign a treaty without Senate approval. The Obama Iran deal is evidence of that.
The deal Trump agreed to with the Taliban required that they NEGOTIATE with the government and develop a joint governance system satisfactory to both. However, as the Taliban continually violated the provisions of that deal, and with the advice of his intelligence centers and military he moved the 'goal posts' of the American withdrawal himself.
And then came along Joe Biden and he totally blew the entire deal out of the water using his own arrogance, ignorance and contempt for anything Trump.
And today, Biden owns the fact that there are tens of thousands of Americans begging for help and receiving none. Great job Joe. You make the Carter debacle look like a kindergarten skit in comparison.
You need to forget Trump.
Biden was the one who picked the day and the way US forces would be withdrawn.
You know, the dumbass that got elected because the pandemic killed people.
That's nice. What does force size have to do with anything? The Afghan military was not overrun by a superior force. The Afghan military was not defeated. They simply did not fight. I doubt the Marine Corps trained Afghans to wave a white flag.
Joe Biden was blowing smoke as a distraction. Biden admitted the Taliban would regain power by claiming events unfolded more rapidly than anticipated. Obviously the Biden administration did not plan for a transition to Taliban control; they planned on wishful thinking. Biden was planning on Afghans fighting a civil war. Apparently the Afghan people knew what was expected and refused to play Biden's political games.
Glenn Kessler is fact checking Biden's political delusion. And that's supposed to give Biden some sort of cover? It seems to have worked.
Anything from Fox 'news' is bogus.
Even when the facts were originally published by left wing Washington Post? Amazing!
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What hatred XM?