Former Obama official Brett Bruen wrote Monday that President Joe Biden must fire national security adviser Jake Sullivan for failing to safely withdraw from Afghanistan.
“Yes, Biden wanted out of Afghanistan. It was on Sullivan to figure out how to achieve the president’s goal while ensuring we avoided potential pitfalls and problems. That’s clearly not what happened,” Bruen wrote in USA Today. “While he knows all the theories and academic arguments in foreign policy, his overseas experience is less robust. It can lead to the disconnect between ideas and implementation.”
“President Biden needs to fire his national security adviser and several other senior leaders who oversaw the botched execution of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,” continued Bruen. “He has to restructure how and with whom he is making major foreign policy decisions, allowing for more input from career experts.”
“Yes, we were always going to pull out. It was a question of how and when. Both of those were decisions that Sullivan had to use his role to carefully guide,” Bruen continued to hammer Sullivan:
Unfortunately, it seems he allowed the president’s push for an end to our involvement in the country ahead of Sept. 11 to drive the American timeline. That was a catastrophic error. Our people were unprepared. We failed to get them out of harm’s way. The Afghan government and military clearly were not ready either.
The finger pointing from Bruen comes as the Taliban overran Kabul Sunday and appear to be in full control of the capital city. Biden has sent thousands of more troops to defend the Kabul airport after chaos ensued with many Americans and Afghanis attempting to escape the country.
Video from the scene depicts individuals clamoring to board flights out of the country. Another video shows an individual clinging to what appears to be an American military aircraft while took off, falling many feet to the ground:
Reuters reported the following about the situation:
It was not immediately clear how the five people died at the airport. A U.S. official said troops had fired in the air to deter people trying to force their way on to a military flight that was set to take U.S diplomats and embassy staff out of the city.
One witness, waiting for a flight out for more than 20 hours, said it was unclear if the five had been shot or killed in a stampede. U.S. officials at the airport were not immediately available for comment.
In a social media video, three bodies could be seen on the ground near what appeared to be an airport side entrance. Reuters could not verify the footage. Another witness said he had also seen five bodies.
“Everyone is worried,” a former government employee hiding in Kabul told the outlet. “They’re not targeting people yet but they will, that’s the reality. Maybe in two or three weeks, that’s why people are fighting to get out now.”
Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby told Fox News Monday that “American citizens will not be given priority evacuation over Afghan” refugees.
“Once we get more airlift out of Kabul, we’re going to put as many people on those planes as we can. There will be a mix, not just American citizens, but perhaps some Afghan SIV applicants as well,” Kirby explained. “We’re going to focus on getting people out of the country, then sorting it out at the next stop. It’s not going to be just Americans first, then SIV applicants. We’re going to focus on getting as many folks out as we can.”
The establishment media have compared the fall of Kabul to the fall of Saigon, Vietnam in 1975.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø