CONTRADICTION

State Dept. Memo in July Warned of Kabul’s Imminent Fall After U.S. Withdrawal: Report

The memo is at odds with President Joe Biden’s repeated insistence that nothing more could be done to prevent the Taliban takeover as the U.S. retreated.

A State Department memo from the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan in July warned of an impending fall of Kabul as the U.S. exited the country, The Wall Street Journal reports. The July 13 memo was sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and another State leader by 20 embassy officials. In it, the group said the capital could collapse shortly after the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline and that the U.S. needed to be more forceful in condemning the Taliban’s attacks against Afghan cities. The finding flies in the face of the Biden administration’s position on the Taliban’s takeover, saying there was nothing it could have done to expect or stop the siege. “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” President Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Wednesday.