Agencies | Washington The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com The White House yesterday released a long-awaited review of the traumatic US exit from Afghanistan, admitting there had been a massive intelligence failure in not predicting rapid Taliban victory, but defending
Agencies | Washington
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
The White House yesterday released a long-awaited review of the traumatic US exit from Afghanistan, admitting there had been a massive intelligence failure in not predicting rapid Taliban victory, but defending overall US conduct.
"Clearly we didn't get things right" on intelligence, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters after the still classified report was sent to Congress.
But “ending a war, any war, is not an easy endeavour, certainly not after 20 years,” he said. “It doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth doing -- ending that war in Afghanistan.”
The White House blamed conditions created by President Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump for the way the planned 2021 withdrawal turned into a rout, culminating in a desperate evacuation from Kabul airport.
But it also acknowledged that the US intelligence services had failed to understand the strength of the Taliban and the weakness of the Afghan government’s forces that Western countries had spent years propping up.
