Biden, Ghani did not foresee Taliban takeover in their last call
Al JazeeraBefore Afghan government collapsed on August 15, the US president pressed his Afghan counterpart to ‘change perception’. In the last call between US President Joe Biden and his Afghanistan counterpart before the Taliban seized control of the country, the leaders discussed military aid, political strategy and messaging tactics, but neither Biden nor Ashraf Ghani appeared aware of or prepared for the immediate danger of the entire country falling to the armed group, a transcript reviewed by Reuters shows. “You have 300,000 well-armed forces versus 70-80,000 and they’re clearly capable of fighting well.” Days later, the Afghan military started folding across provincial capitals in the country with little fight against the Taliban. Last time we met for 110 minutes; he was cursing me and he was accusing me of being a US lackey by Ashraf Ghani, ex-Afghan president Biden told Ghani that if Afghanistan’s prominent political figures were to give a press conference together, backing a new military strategy, “that will change perception, and that will change an awful lot I think”. In a little over two weeks after Biden’s call with Ghani, the Taliban captured several provincial Afghan capitals and the US said it was up to the Afghan security forces to defend the country.