WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden and other top US officials were stunned on Sunday by the pace of the Taliban’s nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan, as the planned withdrawal of American forces urgently became a mission to ensure a safe evacuation.
The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief, and he was the subject of withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failed.
Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban while arguing that Americans of all political persuasions have tired of a 20-year war, a conflict that demonstrated the limits of money and military might to force a Western-style democracy on a society not ready or willing to embrace it.
By Sunday, though, leading figures in the administration acknowledged they were caught off guard with the utter speed of the collapse of Afghan security forces. The challenge of that effort became clear after reports of sporadic gunfire at the Kabul airport prompted Americans to shelter as they awaited flights to safety after the US Embassy was completely evacuated.
“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country, and that has happened more quickly than we anticipated,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN, referring to the Afghan military.
The turmoil in Afghanistan resets the focus in an unwelcome way for a president who has largely focused on a domestic agenda that includes emerging from the pandemic, winning congressional approval for trillions of dollars in infrastructure spending and protecting voting rights.
Biden remained at Camp David on Sunday, receiving regular briefings on Afghanistan and holding secure video conference calls with members of his national security team, according to senior White House officials. His administration released a single photo of the president alone in a conference room meeting virtually with military, diplomatic and intelligence experts. The next several days would be critical in determining whether the US is able to regain some level of control over the situation.
The Pentagon and State Department said in a joint statement Sunday that “we are completing a series of steps to secure the Hamid Karzai International Airport to enable the safe departure of US and allied personnel from Afghanistan via civilian and military flights.” Biden ordered another 1,000 troops into Kabul to secure the evacuation.
Discussions were underway for Biden to speak publicly, according to two senior administration officials who requested anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Biden, who is scheduled to remain at the presidential retreat through Wednesday, is expected to return to the White House if he decides to deliver an address.
Biden is the fourth US president to confront challenges in Afghanistan and has insisted he wouldn’t hand America’s longest war to his successor. But the president will likely have to explain how security in Afghanistan unraveled so quickly, especially since he and others in the administration have insisted it wouldn’t happen.
“The jury is still out, but the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden said on July 8.
As recently as last week, Biden publicly expressed hope that Afghan forces could develop the will to defend their country. But privately, administration officials warned that the military was crumbling, prompting Biden on Thursday to order thousands of American troops into the region to speed up evacuation plans.
One official said Biden was more sanguine on projections for the Afghan fighters to hold off the Taliban in part to prevent a further erosion in morale among their force. It was ultimately for naught.
Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump also yearned to leave Afghanistan, but ultimately stood down in the face of resistance from military leaders and other political concerns. Biden, on the other hand, has been steadfast in his refusal to change the Aug. 31 deadline, in part because of his belief that the American public is on his side.
A late July ABC News/Ipsos poll, for instance, showed 55 percent of Americans approving of Biden’s handling of the troop withdrawal.
Most Republicans have not pushed Biden to keep troops in Afghanistan over the long term and they also supported Trump’s own push to exit the country. Still, some in the GOP are stepping up their critique of Biden’s withdrawal strategy and said images from Sunday of American helicopters circling the US Embassy in Kabul evoked the humiliating departure of US personnel from Vietnam.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell deemed the scenes of withdrawal as “the embarrassment of a superpower laid low.”
Meanwhile, US officials are increasingly concerned about the potential for the rise in terrorist threats against the US as the situation in Afghanistan devolves, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive security matter.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on a briefing call Sunday that US officials are expected to alter their earlier assessments about the pace of terrorist groups reconstituting in Afghanistan, the person said. Based on the evolving situation, officials believe terror groups like Al-Qaeda may be able to grow much faster than expected.
The officials on the call told senators that the US intelligence community is currently working on forming a new timeline based on the evolving threats.
Still, there were no additional steps planned beyond the troop deployment Biden ordered to assist in the evacuations. Senior administration officials believe the US will be able to maintain security at the Kabul airport long enough to extricate Americans and their allies, but the fate of those unable to get to the airport was far from certain.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has backed the Biden administration’s strategy, said in an interview that “the speed is a surprise” but would not characterize the situation as an intelligence failure. He said it has long been known that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban if the United States pulled out.
“Given how much we have invested in the Afghan army, it’s not ridiculous for analysts to believe that they’d be able to put up a fight for more than a few days,” Murphy said. “You want to believe that trillions of dollars and 20 years of investment adds up to something, even if it doesn’t add up for the ability to defend the country in the long run.”
In the upper ranks of Biden’s staff, the rapid collapse in Afghanistan only confirmed the decision to leave: If the meltdown of the Afghan forces would come so quickly after nearly two decades of American presence, another six months or a year or two or more would not have changed anything.
Biden has argued for more than a decade that Afghanistan was a kind of purgatory for the United States. He found it to be corrupt, addicted to America’s largesse and an unreliable partner that should be made to fend for itself. His goal was to protect Americans from terrorist attacks, not building a country.
As vice president, he argued privately against Obama’s surge of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan in a bid to stabilize the country so that the United States and its allies could then pull back their forces.
As president, Biden said in July that he made the decision to withdraw with “clear eyes” after receiving daily battlefield updates. His judgment was that Afghanistan would be divided in a peace agreement with the Taliban, rather than falling all at once.
While Biden has prided himself on delivering plain truths to the American public, his bullish assessment of the situation just a month ago could come back to haunt him.
“There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan,” he said in July. “The likelihood there’s going to be one unified government in Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikely.”
![]()
Biden team surprised by rapid Taliban gains in Afghanistan
Short Url
https://arab.news/9xpz5
Biden team surprised by rapid Taliban gains in Afghanistan
- Unlike Obama and Trump who ultimately stood down in the face of resistance from military leaders and other political concerns against an abrupt pullout of US forces in Afghanistan, Biden has been steadfast in his refusal to change the Aug. 31 deadline
France’s homeless wrap up to survive at freezing year’s end
PARIS: In the biting cold, homeless friends Danish and Sylvain walked briskly in the dark toward a hot meal distribution point, rubbing their hands together, their huge backpacks weighing down on their shoulders.
“If you stop, the cold seeps into your bones. As long as we’re walking, we’re producing heat,” said 50-year-old Danish, a Pakistani who asked to withhold his surname to avoid embarrassing his France-based family.
Temperatures in France have dropped in recent weeks and are expected to hover around zero in many areas on New Year’s Eve.
Several French regions including Paris have increased shelter beds to help the homeless, but reports have already emerged of some appearing to have frozen to death.
Sylvain, 52, said he and his companion checked the weather forecast on their phones every night to best prepare.
The Frenchman, who also did not want to give his surname to protect his three children, said he wore six layers on his chest — a t-shirt, a jumper, a fleece, a waistcoat and two jackets.
“The trick is to let air between the layers. If it’s too tight, there’s not much isolation,” he said.
He also wears tights and two pairs of socks, and he tops it all off with a beanie, a cap and a furry hat with flaps.
“You lose heat through the top of your head,” he said.
Neither he, nor his companion Danish, drink alcohol, he said.
“It makes you numb so you don’t know when you’re cold, and you can slip away during the night,” Sylvain said.
- ‘Sleep without fear’ -
This winter has already proven deadly.
A homeless man was found lifeless in a Paris street on Sunday, likely having frozen to death, a police source said. He had been staying in a nearby shelter.
On Christmas day, a 35-year-old homeless person was found dead in the northern city of Reims, a prosecutor said.
There are no recent official figures on homelessness in France. But the Housing Foundation, a charity, estimates 350,000 people do not have a permanent home — including 20,000 who sleep rough nationwide. Many in Paris are undocumented migrants.
More than 900 people without a home died throughout the year in 2024, on average aged 47, according to a charity called Dead in the Street.
Paris authorities say they have set up emergency shelters in sports halls and schools to help during the cold wave, while charities too have added beds to their facilities.
At a charity-run shelter in Paris, which provides bedding for more than 370 people on seven floors, volunteers have been handing out hot meals.
Nakunzi Fumiasuca, a 36-year-old from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he had been living in a tent until he was offered a bed.
“Here I can sleep without fear,” he said.
Taha Nouri, a 32-year-old who arrived in France from Libya in 2021, came after the charity brought him in, telling him he could stay for a week.
“I was able to have a shower, eat well, see a doctor and get medicine,” he said.
But Danish and Sylvain say their calls to a hotline to request shelter never go through.
Instead they have been sleeping rough in one of the main train stations in Paris — always trying to watch out that no one steals their blanket.
“When you have one stolen and it’s cold, it’s a disaster,” said Sylvain. “Your only option is to ride the night bus around Paris until dawn.”
- ‘Time stopped’ -
Danish said he came to France with his father three decades ago and was working as a waiter, but ended up in the street after a dispute with his boss three months ago.
“I’m deeply ashamed sometimes,” he said. “I don’t want my family to see me like this.”
Sylvain said he worked as a cleaner for 15 years before a painful separation from his wife in 2022 pushed him into the street.
When he left, his three children were eight, 12 and 16, he said.
“Time stopped,” he said.
He speaks to them on the phone every week, but tells them he is “staying with a friend.”
Until they can find a solution, the two men plan their lives around the capital’s free food distributions.
Keeping clean is difficult as public bathrooms are often closed or out of hot water, Sylvain said.
But Danish insisted they do their best with cold water.
Sometimes there are good surprises. Last week, a charity handed Sylvain what he said was “a real present.”
“It had everything: a hat, toothpaste, cotton buds and even perfume — not the cheap kind,” he said.
But at the weekend, Sylvain said, he had to rip out two teeth himself to stop a throbbing toothache.
“I gave them a good yank and now it’s sorted,” he said.
“If you stop, the cold seeps into your bones. As long as we’re walking, we’re producing heat,” said 50-year-old Danish, a Pakistani who asked to withhold his surname to avoid embarrassing his France-based family.
Temperatures in France have dropped in recent weeks and are expected to hover around zero in many areas on New Year’s Eve.
Several French regions including Paris have increased shelter beds to help the homeless, but reports have already emerged of some appearing to have frozen to death.
Sylvain, 52, said he and his companion checked the weather forecast on their phones every night to best prepare.
The Frenchman, who also did not want to give his surname to protect his three children, said he wore six layers on his chest — a t-shirt, a jumper, a fleece, a waistcoat and two jackets.
“The trick is to let air between the layers. If it’s too tight, there’s not much isolation,” he said.
He also wears tights and two pairs of socks, and he tops it all off with a beanie, a cap and a furry hat with flaps.
“You lose heat through the top of your head,” he said.
Neither he, nor his companion Danish, drink alcohol, he said.
“It makes you numb so you don’t know when you’re cold, and you can slip away during the night,” Sylvain said.
- ‘Sleep without fear’ -
This winter has already proven deadly.
A homeless man was found lifeless in a Paris street on Sunday, likely having frozen to death, a police source said. He had been staying in a nearby shelter.
On Christmas day, a 35-year-old homeless person was found dead in the northern city of Reims, a prosecutor said.
There are no recent official figures on homelessness in France. But the Housing Foundation, a charity, estimates 350,000 people do not have a permanent home — including 20,000 who sleep rough nationwide. Many in Paris are undocumented migrants.
More than 900 people without a home died throughout the year in 2024, on average aged 47, according to a charity called Dead in the Street.
Paris authorities say they have set up emergency shelters in sports halls and schools to help during the cold wave, while charities too have added beds to their facilities.
At a charity-run shelter in Paris, which provides bedding for more than 370 people on seven floors, volunteers have been handing out hot meals.
Nakunzi Fumiasuca, a 36-year-old from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he had been living in a tent until he was offered a bed.
“Here I can sleep without fear,” he said.
Taha Nouri, a 32-year-old who arrived in France from Libya in 2021, came after the charity brought him in, telling him he could stay for a week.
“I was able to have a shower, eat well, see a doctor and get medicine,” he said.
But Danish and Sylvain say their calls to a hotline to request shelter never go through.
Instead they have been sleeping rough in one of the main train stations in Paris — always trying to watch out that no one steals their blanket.
“When you have one stolen and it’s cold, it’s a disaster,” said Sylvain. “Your only option is to ride the night bus around Paris until dawn.”
- ‘Time stopped’ -
Danish said he came to France with his father three decades ago and was working as a waiter, but ended up in the street after a dispute with his boss three months ago.
“I’m deeply ashamed sometimes,” he said. “I don’t want my family to see me like this.”
Sylvain said he worked as a cleaner for 15 years before a painful separation from his wife in 2022 pushed him into the street.
When he left, his three children were eight, 12 and 16, he said.
“Time stopped,” he said.
He speaks to them on the phone every week, but tells them he is “staying with a friend.”
Until they can find a solution, the two men plan their lives around the capital’s free food distributions.
Keeping clean is difficult as public bathrooms are often closed or out of hot water, Sylvain said.
But Danish insisted they do their best with cold water.
Sometimes there are good surprises. Last week, a charity handed Sylvain what he said was “a real present.”
“It had everything: a hat, toothpaste, cotton buds and even perfume — not the cheap kind,” he said.
But at the weekend, Sylvain said, he had to rip out two teeth himself to stop a throbbing toothache.
“I gave them a good yank and now it’s sorted,” he said.
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.