Retired Army Gen. Jack Keane said Wednesday that President Joe Biden had ignored warnings about the Taliban because of his “self-righteous stubbornness.”
Keane told Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner that Biden “believes he is a foreign policy expert” but argued that his decisions and actions in the foreign policy arena suggested otherwise. (RELATED: General Jack Keane: Pentagon ‘Outraged’ Over Obama’s Bergdahl Victory Lap)
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Faulkner began with a clip of Biden from just over a month earlier, when he said that a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was “not inevitable.”
“The likelihood there is going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden said in July.
“I don’t think we can overdo reminding how short a journey this president and the nation have been on to get us to where we are now and the bubble that he is in on this issue is so clouded to our reality right now,” Faulkner continued.
“He was advised by military commanders who have years of experience dealing with this issue, dealing with the Taliban, dealing with the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government, our intelligence agency. It has been publicly disclosed,” Keane replied
He went on to say that there had been a significant CIA presence in the country and that they would have known what kind of a threat the Taliban or other groups like al-Qaeda might present.
“So he had the advice. He just chose to ignore it. This comes down to the self-righteous stubbornness he has,” Keane continued. “He believes he is a foreign policy expert because he has dealt with foreign policy committee for years. Many of us who have been associated with him and seen him make one foreign policy judgment mistake after another.”
Keane asserted that everyone had been aware the Taliban would take over in Afghanistan — and that al-Qaeda already had a presence there as well.
“The number two in the Taliban is an Al Qaeda guy. Now they resurrect themselves. They don’t have to hide,” he added.
“And they have money, China, Russia [and] Pakistan,” Faulkner replied.
Arguing that the Taliban could stand on the claim that they had defeated the United States, Keane said his fear was that Afghanistan would become the epicenter radical jihadism.
“That’s the path we’re on. That is really sad. It is a more dangerous path for the security of the American people and for the world at large. China, Russia, and Iran watch. Watch how they are emboldened,” Keane added. “Watch Russia push Ukraine, emboldened by this foreign policy failure.”