The Taliban have taken Afghanistan's second and third largest cities.

 

Taliban troops in Ghazni, Afghanistan's third largest city. Reuters/Taliban handout.

The Taliban have taken Afghanistan's second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Ghazni. Reuters. The two cities represent the Taliban's biggest victory since the war began almost 20 years ago. In response the United States and the United Kingdom will send thousands of troops to evacuate their embassies in Kabul. The United States is also trying to evacuate Afghans who had helped them in the war. American intelligence says the Taliban could isolate Kabul in 30 days and capture the capital in 90 days. The decision to pull out troops was made by President Trump but Joe Biden has been in charge as the Taliban launched their major offensive. 

My Comment:
What a disaster. It seems very clear that we are seeing a repeat of Saigon in 1975. The Afghan government lost two of their biggest cities and has lost 12 provincial capitols. The Afghan military has fallen apart and there are few troops standing between the Taliban and the capitol.

I don't think there is much chance of the Afghan government surviving. They have lost thousands of troops and morale is non-existent. They have no allies left and the Taliban has the advantage and momentum. 

At it sure looks like Biden has zero interest in sending troops in. Yes, he is sending in a token force to defend and evacuate the embassy, but those troops will have no impact on the war. Our efforts to bomb the Taliban into submission have failed and that's about all the help we can give the Afghan government without sending troops. 

Biden deserves both blame and credit in this situation. As much as I despise the man, I misjudged him. I thought for sure that as soon as Afghanistan fell apart he would be sending in tens of thousands of troops. Instead he seems content to let the war finish, even if it means we get embarrassed. At this point, any more assistance to Afghanistan is just throwing good money after bad. We tried to get them to stand on their own and they failed miserably. Washing our hands of them is the right call. 

That being said, the endgame didn't have to be this way. If Biden had just followed President Trump's timeline we probably could have avoided much of this. Instead he had to make the asinine decision to withdraw on September 11th, which he later revised. Trump had a deal with the Taliban and they were largely going along with it. But Biden double crossed them and they launched their massive offensive. Afghanistan falling may have been inevitable but if Biden had cooperated he could have bought some time for a political solution. 

This will be a major embarrassment for the United States and Biden in particular. Sure, I know he is going to blame President Trump but when it comes down to it the buck stops with him. He's going to be in charge as Kabul falls and our troops and diplomats flee Afghanistan with their tails between their legs.