Joe Biden discusses reason US invaded Afghanistan
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The ex-minister attacked the US President for having put the safety of Afghans at risk by deserting the Middle East country. His intervention comes amid growing fears for the security of the rest of the world in consequence of Washington’s misstep.
The Taliban is once again insurgent after the US announced earlier this year announced its intention to remove all troops by September.
With the terrorist organisation set to take control of some areas of the country, Lord Hague has laid blame at the door of the White House.
“President Biden made the terrible error of announcing that the few thousand remaining US troops would leave the country by September,” he wrote in a newspaper column.
Warning of the “looming disaster” set to hit Afghanistan, he added the country now looked set to be “either permanently at war or oppressed by a brutal ideology”.
Just four months ago the Taliban looked to have been largely driven out of the country, but since the US’s announcement of withdrawal, the group has made rapid gains.
While gaining control of nearly half the country in recent weeks it has failed to take control of any major city, but that looks like it is about to change.
Afghan forces are struggling to hold back the Taliban in the southern province of Helmand.
The terrorist organisation has captured most the province’s capital city of Lashkar Gah, giving it a stronghold in the region.
In a damning verdict of the President’s foreign policy, Lord Hague said the US appeared to have shown naivety in not foreseeing the rise of the Taliban upon its decision to withdraw troops.
He wrote in The Times: “The speed and scale of the Taliban advance, to now controlling around half the country, appears to have taken the White House by surprise.
“It should not have done so.
“If you utterly demoralise your own side in a war, it should not be in the least bit surprising that they retreat, abandon weapons, argue among themselves or surrender, all of which have rapidly begun to happen.”
Lord Hague was Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2015 and oversaw much of the UK’s military strategy for Afghanistan.
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He was credited in 2012 for bringing the US to the table for negotiations with the Taliban to try and bring about lasting peace.
This is not the first time Lord Hague has questioned President Biden’s Middle East strategy.
When Washington’s decision to withdraw troops was made in April, the ex-minister warned it would turn out to be a “big mistake”.
“Twenty years is long enough to have changed Afghan society but not long enough to expect it to survive on its own,” he said at the time.
The US had spent 20 years in the country, ever since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
General Sami Sadat, who is leading the Afghan government’s fight against the Taliban, told the BBC the US’s withdrawal would have a catastrophic impact on Europe and America, with an increase in extremists activity.
“This will increase the hope for small extremist groups to mobilise in the cities of Europe and America, and will have a devastating effect on global security,” he said.
“This is not a war of Afghanistan, this is a war between liberty and totalitarianism.”
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