‘Biden has let us and the Afghans down’:  Ex-British military chief slams president over withdrawal

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A former head of MI6 today warned the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan could ‘inspire’ terrorists to launch attacks on the West amid a growing backlash at Joe Biden’s handling of the US withdrawal from the country.

Sir John Sawers said there is ‘no doubt’ the Taliban’s success is being ‘celebrated’ by extreme Islamist groups and ‘that raises the risk of them being inspired to more violence in Western countries’. 

Sir John said the chaos in Afghanistan means terror groups are likely to move there because they will have ‘some operating space’, with the US and UK now in a ‘much weaker position’ to combat the threat they pose. 

His comments came as the former professional head of Britain’s armed forces launched a direct attack on Mr Biden over the West’s Afghanistan ‘defeat’, as the transatlantic alliance was placed under further strain.

Lord David Richards, an ex-chief of the defence staff, accused the US President and other politicians of letting down Britain and their Afghan allies in their rush to escape Kabul. 

The peer, who served in Afghanistan, said ‘we’ve been defeated by the Taliban‘ as he attacked America and the UK Government over their handling of the pull out. 

The UK completed its withdrawal at the weekend, having evacuated thousands of people from the country but ministers admitted some citizens who are eligible to come to Britain were left behind.  

There are now growing fears that the number of people left in the country is much higher than previously thought, with Labour MPs telling The Guardian there are more than 7,000 of their constituents and family members in need of rescue. 

The Government has urged people to head for land borders with surrounding countries to make it out but Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today admitted such journeys will be a ‘challenge’.   

It came amid an extraordinary slanging match over responsibility for US deaths from a suicide blast at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Pentagon officials blamed British requests to keep an entrance to the hub open for casualties in Thursday’s blast, which killed 182 people including 13 US Marines.

The claim was attacked as ‘reprehensible’ by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who also took aim at Mr Biden, who is expected to speak publicly about the withdrawal in Washington later today.

Sir John, who served as head of MI6 between 2009 and 2014, said the chaos in Afghanistan raises the risk of an increased terror threat. 

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘There is no doubt that the Taliban’s success in Afghanistan is being celebrated by extreme Islamist groups, violent groups, across the Islamic world and that raises the risk of them being inspired to more violence in Western countries as well as in the Islamic world to further their aims.’

He added: ‘There is no doubt that the terrorist groups will now feel that they can move to Afghanistan and have some operating space there so the picture could change.’

Sir John said that without forces on the ground the UK and US are now in a ‘much weaker position’ to combat terror groups in Afghanistan.  

Meanwhile, Lord Richards told BBC Breakfast: ‘A lot of lives have been lost, not just British service lives, also many Afghans, and hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives are now facing ruin when they had some hope.

‘I’m afraid our political leadership, and in particular President Biden over the last six months, have let those people down, us and the Afghans.’

He added that anybody who believes the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan was a success, ‘should start writing novels, because, quite clearly, it is not what we all intended’.

However, Lord Richards added that the agreed date for all evacuations from the country should not have been extended.

He said: ‘The fact is, we’ve been defeated by the Taliban and the Taliban had agreed August 31 with the Americans, and, while I don’t for one moment take sides with the Taliban, I can see why they said enough is enough.’

It came as Taliban fighters paraded at Kabul airport after the last American troops departed on Monday night, saying the West’s retreat should serve as ‘a lesson for the world’.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the group’s chief spokesman, addressed the media from the tarmac this morning – posing in front of Taliban ‘special forces’ units wielding American-made rifles and US military gear, who had seized control of the airstrip just hours earlier.

‘Congratulations to Afghanistan… this victory belongs to us all,’ Mujahid said, calling the day a ‘big lesson for other invaders and for our future generation.’ ‘It is an historical day and an historical moment. We are proud of these moments, that we liberated our country from a great power,’ he added.

Overnight, fireworks and celebratory gunfire had lit up the night sky over the Afghan capital after it emerged the last US evacuation flight had departed, putting an end to America’s longest war.

But hundreds of American and British citizens were left behind, along with thousands of Afghans who provided assistance to their troops on the promise of sanctuary that was ultimately broken. Many now fear for their lives.

Earlier, Mr Raab hit back at the Pentagon after it tried to shift the blame for the high death toll from last week’s suicide attack in Kabul on to the UK.

With the ‘special relationship’ under further strain, Britain’s Foreign Secretary insisted it is ‘simply not true’ to suggest UK pushed to keep an airport gate open to allow more refugees to escape, against the wishes of their US allies.

And he revealed that Britain had already moved its own staff from a nearby hotel because of the growing threat of a terror attack.

Mr Raab told Sky News: ‘We co-ordinated very closely with the US, in particular around the Isis-K threat which we anticipated, although tragically were not able to prevent, but it is certainly right to say we got our civilians out of the processing centre by Abbey Gate, but it is just not true to suggest that other than securing our civilians inside the airport that we were pushing to leave the gate open.

‘In fact, and let me just be clear about this, we were issuing changes of travel advice before the bomb attack took place and saying to people in the crowd, about which I was particularly concerned, that certainly UK nationals and anyone else should leave because of the risk.’

Sir Iain blamed the US and president Biden for the terror attack at Kabul airport on August 26.

Speaking to LBC, he said: ‘President Biden was responsible for those decisions which, I believe, were critical in the course of the events that we’ve seen unfolding.

‘I do think now to attempt to try and brief against the UK on the suicide bombing is reprehensible really, because, you know, if the American government or the American military were very serious about shutting the gates, they would have shut the gates.

‘I think this idea that it was down to the idea that the British were begging them to keep them open, I think is a little bit mean-spirited on them and probably wrong.’

Meanwhile  a former vice chief of staff of the United States Army has described the country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as ‘one of the most serious foreign security blunders the US has made in the past 30 or 40 years’.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, General Jack Keane said: ‘The reality that al Qaida is in 15 provinces in Afghanistan. Isis-K has aspirations outside of Afghanistan.

‘The US abandoning the mission even though there are threats to American citizens is one the most serious foreign security blunders US has made in the past 30 or 40 years.’

Gen Keane, who served in conflicts from Vietnam to Bosnia and Kosovo, added that he believes the deadline to leave should have been pushed back in order to evacuate more people, and that a ‘modest force’ presence could have been retained.

He said: ‘I understand nobody expected the regime in Afghanistan to collapse this quickly but why wouldn’t we change the date we get out? I can’t identify with what we have just done. I’m ashamed of it. It’s a fundamental betrayal.’