While announcing the departure of US troops from Afghanistan last month, president Joe Biden promised us that the Taliban would not take control of the nation while we were gone. The Taliban now control the majority of the nation, and the White House is sending soldiers back to assist with the evacuation of the US embassy in Kabul. It’s difficult to be so wrong, so quickly, but Biden is a master of hasty incompetence.

President Biden told the media on July 8 that the Afghan soldiers were sufficient to defend the region, following the news of US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan amid the crisis. When asked if a Taliban takeover was a possibility, Biden responded, “No, it is not (possible). Because you have the Afghan troops have 300,000 well equipped, as well as any army in the world, and an Air Force against 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable.”

His comments reflect those made by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley on Wednesday, when he told reporters that no one expected the Afghan government and army to fall apart in 11 days. Milley said information suggested that such a collapse could take weeks, months, or years after the US military left a country with which it has been at war for two decades.

President Biden stated that the US intelligence assessment suggesting that the Afghanistan crisis led to the collapse of Kabul is “not true.” Biden vehemently disputed that the intelligence had reached such a judgment. “The Afghan government leadership should come together,” Biden said, outlining how the Taliban can be defeated. “They clearly have the capacity to sustain the government in place. The President also denied drawing any parallels to the US decision of its withdrawal from Vietnam in the past. Biden once again assured that Taliban ‘owning’ a country like Afghanistan was ‘not likely’.

Biden claimed in an ABC interview aired Thursday that the Taliban’s takeover was premised on the idea that the Afghan army, which was considerably bigger and better prepared than the Taliban, would fall.

“I don’t think anybody anticipated that,” Biden said.

Following the Taliban’s swift takeover of Afghanistan, Joe Biden met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Llyod Austin, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on August 14 to discuss the US departure from the country, according to the White House. Since the United States began removing troops from the war-torn Afghanistan, the Taliban has launched one of its most devastating strikes, capturing at least two-thirds of the country. The nation had set an August 31, 2021 deadline for departure.

According to Mike Jason, who retired as a US Army colonel in 2019 after 24 years commanding combat units in Afghanistan, Iraq, Germany, Kosovo, and Kuwait, the question of how long Afghan forces could hold off the Taliban came up repeatedly during US military meetings as far back as 2007 and even 2001.

Despite adhering to his departure decision, Biden promised to send extra soldiers to the region to evacuate people. The militants were also cautioned not to jeopardize the evacuation effort, according to the US President. After consulting with his national security staff, Biden stated that 5,000 US forces will assist in the conclusion of the US operation and the evacuation of the country after 20 years on the ground.