During an appearance on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show," former Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting Ben Rhodes pinned a great deal of the blame on former president Donald Trump and his administration for the chaos in Afghanistan as Americans leave the country after two decades.
With host Jonathan Capehart pointing out that the former president made attempts to negotiate with the Taliban and excluded the government of Afghanistan in the process, Rhodes claimed that what is happening now could likely have been avoided if the ex-president hadn't undercut the existing government.
After saying the U.S. failed to prepare Afghanistan for the anticipated departure, including President Barack Obama's administration under which he served, he added, "Donald Trump clearly was in this huge rush to both claim responsibility for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan and also weirdly, to have some kind of peace deal with the Taliban."
"You'll even remember he was talking about inviting them [the Taliban] to Camp David for a big ceremony around the 9/11 anniversary. That is a thing that actually happened," he added. "And the reality is that efforts at diplomacy over the years were always predicated under successive administrations on the Afghan government being in the lead in any negotiation with the Taliban."
"You don't negotiate your own exit with the adversary of the government you're supporting," he elaborated. "What the Trump administration did, they cut a deal with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government -- effectively demoralizing them and making them feel like we were leaving them holding the bag entirely. That was the one opportunity to try and have a diplomatic resolution that could have mitigated some of the damage."
Watch below:
VID 20210815 11 38 19youtu.be
