GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger rips into Trump and Mike Pompeo for 'getting rolled' by the Taliban

[aubiefifty 18,231]

• Rep. Adam Kinzinger slammed Trump and Pompeo for their negotiations with the Taliban last year.

• "They set this up to fail," Kinzinger told CNN.

• Kinzinger also blamed Biden over the current failure in Afghanistan.

• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger slammed the former Trump administration's deal with the Taliban, saying on Sunday that it set the stage for the current failure in Afghanistan.

The Illinois Republican said former President Donald Trump and his then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are at fault for America's "disastrous" withdrawal from the country.

"Donald Trump was publicly saying, 'We have to get out of Afghanistan at all costs. It's not worth it.' Mike Pompeo meets with the Taliban and tries to 'negotiate' something," Kinzinger said during an appearance on CNN.

"They ended up getting rolled almost as bad as Neville Chamberlain," he continued, referring to the British prime minister who negotiated the 1938 Munich Agreement, which was widely panned as enabling the Nazi invasion of Poland.

"They set this up to fail," Kinzinger said.

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming on Sunday also blasted Trump's deal, calling it a "surrender" to the Taliban.

"We sat down and negotiated with terrorists," Cheney told NBC News. "We gave credibility to the Taliban ... We completely undercut the Afghan national government. We absolutely emboldened the Taliban."

While president, Trump was eager to remove American troops from Afghanistan and end the US' longest-running war. But he took an unprecedented step to try and fulfill that aim: negotiate directly with the Taliban. His administration engaged in a series of talks with the militant group in Qatar, and even invited them to a secret meeting at the presidential retreat Camp David for the 9/11 anniversary in 2019. Trump later reversed this decision after a Taliban attack killed a US service member in Afghanistan.

Still, Trump reached a deal with the Taliban in February 2020, which stipulated that US troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan within 14 months on the condition that the Taliban not turn the country into a terrorist base. The agreement had been widely criticized at the time for acceding to the Taliban and excluding the Afghan government. Pompeo attended the signing ceremony and took photos alongside Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is anticipated to head the next Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Trump has now attempted to absolve himself from the situation and pinned responsibility solely on President Joe Biden for the Taliban's takeover and the Afghan government's collapse.

Though Kinzinger on Sunday attacked Trump, he also placed blame on Biden, who "could've easily turned this around" once he became president.

"The Republicans are putting out talking points to make Biden look bad. The Democrats are putting out talking points to point out the past administration. In truth, they're both responsible," Kinzinger said.

"Both parties have failed the American people," he added.

Biden agreed to carry out Trump's deal and pull out of Afghanistan. This week he defended his withdrawal of US troops, despite receiving widespread criticism from both sides of the aisle amid disturbing scenes coming out of Kabul of people clamoring to leave the country and the resurgence of the Taliban.

Read the original article on Business Insider

[DKW 86 7,906]

What a douche...

[jj3jordan 2,171]

7 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

What a douche...

Agreed.

[Grumps 3,706]

The buck stops with Trump. 🤣

[DKW 86 7,906]

12 hours ago, Grumps said:

The buck stops with Trump. 🤣

Trump was negotiating to get us out. It was one of the few good things he actually did. Picking over the carcass now is just sad. Trump had the idea right, at least here. Ther execution, that was on the Biden Admin. How did we walk away from Bagram AFB?

[AUFAN78 4,156]

17 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

Trump was negotiating to get us out. It was one of the few good things he actually did. Picking over the carcass now is just sad. Trump had the idea right, at least here. Ther execution, that was on the Biden Admin. How did we walk away from Bagram AFB?

True and it was a solid plan to evacuate. Nothing, absolutely nothing like the embarrassment of a plan, if you can call it that, we are witnessing now.

[CoffeeTiger 5,870]

38 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

True and it was a solid plan to evacuate. Nothing, absolutely nothing like the embarrassment of a plan, if you can call it that, we are witnessing now.

Did Trump actually have a plan though? 

Yes, Trump formed an agreement with the Taliban promising them that the U.S. would leave Afghanistan, but did he ever set anything in motion anything after that? 

I know Right Wing new's BIG BREAKING STORY lately is saying that Trump had created a "Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau" that was supposedly meant to be used for evacuating Afghanistan, and they are saying Biden ended it and thus caused this crisis, but the State Department has responded to that saying that while Trump's administration had authorized the creation of the CCRB, it was never actually created or established and that it  would have been created it would have been redundant as the State department already carried out the duties and capabilities that this Bureau was supposed to do. Bidens team just ended the creation of it, so it doesn't look like that department would have been ready to help with the Afghanistan operation to begin with. 

[DKW 86 7,906]

2 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Did Trump actually have a plan though? 

Yes, Trump formed an agreement with the Taliban promising them that the U.S. would leave Afghanistan, but did he ever set anything in motion anything after that? 

I know Right Wing new's BIG BREAKING STORY lately is saying that Trump had created a "Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau" that was supposedly meant to be used for evacuating Afghanistan, and they are saying Biden ended it and thus caused this crisis, but the State Department has responded to that saying that while Trump's administration had authorized the creation of the CCRB, it was never actually created or established and that it  would have been created it would have been redundant as the State department already carried out the duties and capabilities that this Bureau was supposed to do. Bidens team just ended the creation of it, so it doesn't look like that department would have been ready to help with the Afghanistan operation to begin with. 

So, do you think any of that in any way mitigates the Charlie Foxtrot we have going on now?

[AUFAN78 4,156]

3 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Did Trump actually have a plan though? 

Yes, Trump formed an agreement with the Taliban promising them that the U.S. would leave Afghanistan, but did he ever set anything in motion anything after that? 

I know Right Wing new's BIG BREAKING STORY lately is saying that Trump had created a "Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau" that was supposedly meant to be used for evacuating Afghanistan, and they are saying Biden ended it and thus caused this crisis, but the State Department has responded to that saying that while Trump's administration had authorized the creation of the CCRB, it was never actually created or established and that it  would have been created it would have been redundant as the State department already carried out the duties and capabilities that this Bureau was supposed to do. Bidens team just ended the creation of it, so it doesn't look like that department would have been ready to help with the Afghanistan operation to begin with. 

President Donald Trump’s top national security officials never intended to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. The president’s public promise to finish withdrawing U.S. forces by May 1, as negotiated with the Taliban, was actually a “play” that masked the Trump administration’s true intentions: to convince Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to quit or accept a bitter power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, and to keep some U.S. troops in Afghanistan for counterrorism missions. Trump administration officials expected that the United States would be able to broker a new shared government in Afghanistan composed primarily of Taliban officials. The new government would then permit U.S. forces to remain in country to support the Afghan military and fight terrorist elements. That plan never happened, in part because Trump lost his reelection bid in November. 

[Grumps 3,706]

2 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

So, do you think any of that in any way mitigates the Charlie Foxtrot we have going on now?

I sure hope you get an answer to this question!

[CoffeeTiger 5,870]

On 8/24/2021 at 6:47 PM, AUFAN78 said:

President Donald Trump’s top national security officials never intended to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. The president’s public promise to finish withdrawing U.S. forces by May 1, as negotiated with the Taliban, was actually a “play” that masked the Trump administration’s true intentions: to convince Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to quit or accept a bitter power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, and to keep some U.S. troops in Afghanistan for counterrorism missions. Trump administration officials expected that the United States would be able to broker a new shared government in Afghanistan composed primarily of Taliban officials. The new government would then permit U.S. forces to remain in country to support the Afghan military and fight terrorist elements. That plan never happened, in part because Trump lost his reelection bid in November. 

You don't give a source for this so i had to look for it:

You left off a Sentence there:

" And at least one other former senior Trump administration official questioned Miller’s retelling. "

 

This is Miller trying to save face for him and Trump. 

 

[AUFAN78 4,156]

3 hours ago, CoffeeTiger said:

You don't give a source for this so i had to look for it:

You left off a Sentence there:

" And at least one other former senior Trump administration official questioned Miller’s retelling. "

 

This is Miller trying to save face for him and Trump. 

 

There are multiple accounts of the same story. Like Ben, you are showing your ignorance.

[CoffeeTiger 5,870]

20 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

There are multiple accounts of the same story. Like Ben, you are showing your ignorance.

I don't know who Ben is? 

but Ok...so lets say Trump got re-elected. 

His genius plan was to force Afghanistan's "democratic" government to give up power to the Taliban in some kind of "power sharing agreement" between two enemies who have been locked into a war for control of the country for decades? 

How was any of this supposed to work?

Trump was going to evacuate a majority of American troops, give Taliban partial control of the country and then tell everyone to 'play nice' with each other and allow the U.S. to keep a few hundred troops on the ground to fight terrorism? 

What would have stopped the Taliban from doing what they already have done and just ousted the rest of the Afghan/American government after being given control of things by Trump. The Taliban already had much of the country under their control after Trumps deal, which is how they just walked through most of the country without resistance or a fight. 

 

You actually think something like this would have worked? 

 

If Trump's end goal was to have the Taliban in charge with an agreement that some American troops stayed in the country for anti-terrorism purposes then he should have just brokered that deal from the start. Having a napkin in his pocket with his "Real" Middle East strategy written on it in crayon for if he got re-elected doesn't do us any good now, does it? 

 

 

[AUFAN78 4,156]

3 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Ok...so lets Trump got re-elected. 

His genius plan was to force Afghanistan's "democratic" government to give up power to the Taliban in some kind of "power sharing agreement" between two enemies who have been locked into a war for control of the country for decades? 

How was any of this supposed to work?

Trump was going to evacuate a majoerity of American troops, give Taliban partial control of the country and then tell everyone to 'play nice' with each other and allow the U.S. to keep a few hundred troops on the ground to fight terrorism? 

What would have stopped the Taliban from doing what they already have done and just ousted the rest of the Afghan/American government after being given control of things by Trump. 

 

You actually think something like this would have worked? 

 

If Trump's end goal was to have the Taliban in charge with an agreement that some American troops stayed in the country for anti-terrorism purposes then he should have just brokered that deal from the start. 

 

 

Your play on reality was cute.

I fully trust our intelligence personnel.  

[CoffeeTiger 5,870]

3 minutes ago, AUFAN78 said:

Your play on reality was cute.

I fully trust our intelligence personnel.  

The ones who told us that Afghanistan's government was fully capable of holding out for months, and that were caught off guard by the Taliban just walking into Kabul within a few days? 

[AUFAN78 4,156]

Just now, CoffeeTiger said:

The ones who told us that Afghanistan's government was fully capable of holding out for months, and that were caught off guard by the Taliban just walking into Kabul? 

You want to cite those quotes from intelligence officials?

[jj3jordan 2,171]

46 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

The ones who told us that Afghanistan's government was fully capable of holding out for months, and that were caught off guard by the Taliban just walking into Kabul within a few days? 

Coffee not trusting intelligence officials? I thought they were awesome. All 17 agencies. You know, the ones you and others crapped on Trump for not trusting. The ones who spied on him and his campaign. Wow that came full circle pretty quick.