Cheney: Biden ignored military commanders’ advice on Afghanistan

Source: The Hill | August 16, 2021 | Joseph Choi

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) on Monday accused President Biden of ignoring the advice of military commanders when it came to dealing with Afghanistan.

While appearing on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” Cheney said she was not surprised by the chaos being seen in Afghanistan and called the scenes being shared on social media “devastating” and “heartbreaking.”

“You know, my view has been that having 2,500 to 3,500 U.S. forces on the ground to conduct counterterrorism, counterintelligence, to help us make sure this Taliban wasn’t able to take over, that they weren’t able to continue to provide safe havens for al Qaeda [was appropriate],” Cheney said.

Host Brian Kilmeade brought up a clip from an NBC News interview with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in which Sullivan acknowledged that the fall of Afghanistan’s government had occurred faster than anticipated and appeared to place some blame on analysts.

Kilmeade asked Cheney whether she believed Biden had been given bad advice or simply ignored what they had been told.

“I think that he ignored the advice of his military leaders,” Cheney said.

“You know, Jake Sullivan is right. This isn’t Saigon. It’s far worse,” she said. “The damage to our national security is significant. The prisoners that have been released, the extent to which this is going to change what we have to do in order to keep ourselves safe, just a massive, massive failure.”

Cheney was among the first GOP lawmakers to condemn the Biden administration when the fall of the Afghan government became all but inevitable. Taking to Twitter last week, Cheney laid blame on both the Trump and Biden administration.

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