- NSA Jake Sullivan blamed the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on the Afghan army.
- He said the army “ultimately decided that they would not fight … for the country.”
- Biden faces criticism from Democrats and Republicans for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, has blamed the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban on the country’s army, which he said lacked the “will” to defend its own country.
On Sunday, the Taliban took control of the capital Kabul and the Afghan presidential palace, as President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
“At the end of the day, despite the fact that we spent 20 years and tens of billions of dollars to give the best equipment, the best training, and the best capacity to the Afghan national security forces, we could not give them the will,” Sullivan told NBC’s “Today” show Monday.
“And they ultimately decided that they would not fight for Kabul and they would not fight for the country.”
Biden is facing mounting criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for his decision in April to withdraw all remaining troops from Afghanistan, after the Taliban seized most of the country in little over a week.
