Key Trump defense official refutes Blinken, says Trump left Afghan withdrawal plan for Biden [John Solomon PodCast]

Key Trump defense official refutes Blinken, says Trump left Afghan withdrawal plan for Biden

The focus of the Trump administration’s plan was to “peacefully negotiate yourself out of Afghanistan with a conditions-based withdrawal,” Kash Patel said.

By Natalia Mittelstadt

Kash Patel, former chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, blasted Secretary of State Antony Blinken for claiming that the Trump administration did not leave President Biden a plan for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

On the John Solomon Reports podcast on Thursday, Patel was asked if Blinken accurately told Congress that Trump left Biden a deadline for leaving Afghanistan without a plan. “No, absolutely not,” Patel replied.

Criticizing Blinken for playing “politics with the national security apparatus of the United States,” Patel, who worked on the transition coordination team, said that the Trump administration did not leave Biden a deadline.

“We actually did not leave them a deadline,” he said. “It was a negotiation between the U.S. government, the Taliban, and the Afghans. And if that date was not to work for this incoming administration, they could have moved it.

“But what they chose to do was break the entire agreement. And then they thought, since the adults were back in Washington, D.C., and Blinken and Biden were leading the charge, the world will just fall into place for them. And they blew it in Afghanistan. So I think their credibility’s shot when it comes to everything Afghanistan.”

Trump’s overall plan was to “peacefully negotiate yourself out of Afghanistan with a conditions-based withdrawal,” he said. “[A]nd the world knew that was President Trump’s plan.”

Under the Trump plan, the Taliban and the Afghan government had to meet certain criteria if they wanted the U.S. to help them establish “a peaceful, negotiated government in Afghanistan without U.S. troop presence,” Patel explained. “The main component of that was an all-out rejection of al Qaeda and ISIS.”

If the Taliban and then-Afghan government wanted U.S. funds, “training and assistance in some form of military presence,” they would all “have to sit down at the table with each other, like they were doing in Doha,” Patel continued, and the U.S. would assist them in reaching an agreement for an interim government with then-President Ashraf Ghani.

“And they knew that they couldn’t cross at least President Trump’s threat to rain down on them, should they harm a U.S. personnel or allied member,” Patel said. “And that was the difference, really, between our plan and their plan.”

The Biden administration “guys are running around acting as if there’s like a one-pager on how to get out of Afghanistan,” he said. “Of course there isn’t, that’s absurd. Moving 20 years’ worth of military presence out of a country is a multifaceted operation that the Department of Defense runs. And if Tony Blinken isn’t talking to his Department of Defense colleagues, because they’re not coming out saying that there was no plan.”

Patel said that there were several components to Trump’s plan to leave Afghanistan, including dealing with U.S. military equipment, making peace deals, ensuring that terrorists were not being harbored, not allowing U.S. citizens to be killed, and figuring out what to do with all of them living in the country, as many were working with nongovernmental organizations.”

He expanded on Trump’s plan for getting Americans out, which was to have followed once a peaceful, negotiated government was in place.

“American citizens would be drawn out first, safely, and we would identify them through the process that is in place when you methodically do something with the military, the State Department, and the intelligence community,” he explained. “There’s a difference when you evacuate versus proactively go get them.”

The plan, he said, “was to make sure we got to every American before we left the military, before we left Bagram [Air Base], before we left equipment, and left a crisis like the Biden administration did.”

As for the plan for leaving Bagram Air Base, Patel said that it was “the very last thing we do in country after Americans were out, after our equipment was out and/or destroyed, after the thousands of detainees at Bagram were adjudicated” and airlifted out of the country.

He added that “we bucked” NATO allies at Bagram “when Biden said, ‘We’re up and leaving.'”

*********

(TLB) published this article with permission of John Solomon at Just the News.  Click Here to read about the staff at Just the News

Some emphasis and pictorial content added by (TLB)

Header featured image (edited) credit: Patel/americankahani.com

••••

••••

Stay tuned to …

••••

The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)

••••

Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.

••••

Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.

••••

Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*