A transcript of a phone call was just
released by Reuters between President Biden and the president of Afghanistan that took place on July 23rd over the Afghanistan crisis. By August 15th, the Taliban
took over Afghanistan and the Afghan president fled.
However, just weeks before chaos broke out in Afghanistan, President Biden used this phone call with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to
express his concerns about the “perception” of the Taliban:
I need not tell you the perception around the world is that things are not going well with the Taliban. And whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, immediately followed President Biden’s footsteps. When he spoke with Ghani separately that day, he
mimicked the President’s concerns:
The perception in the United States, in Europe and the media sort of thing is a narrative of Taliban momentum, and a narrative of Taliban victory. We need to collectively demonstrate and try to turn that perception, that narrative around.
Well, they failed. We did not turn around the perception, because the REALITY was that the Taliban took over and 13 U.S. service members
died, and Americans are still
abandoned in Afghanistan as a result