An Afghan Army general claimed Wednesday that the reason his troops were unable to confront the Taliban was largely due to their sense of betrayal by the United States and President Joe Biden, blaming America for being unable to hold their own country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true that the Afghan Army lost its will to fight. But that\u2019s because of the growing sense of abandonment by our American partners and the disrespect and disloyalty reflected in Mr. Biden\u2019s tone and words over the past few months,\u201d Afghan General Sami Sadat wrote in a New York Times op-ed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Afghan Army is not without blame. It had its problems \u2014 cronyism, bureaucracy \u2014 but we ultimately stopped fighting because our partners already had,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sadat recounted the Afghan Army’s three-and-a-half-month campaign to keep the Taliban out of Helmand Province. He said that it was not until President Ashraf Ghani summoned him to Kabul and made him commander of Afghanistan’s special forces that the army ceded control to the Taliban.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the Taliban already were entering the city; it was too late,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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"We kept fighting," Afghan Army Lt. Gen. Sami Sadat writes. "But then Mr. Biden confirmed in April he would stick to Mr. Trump\u2019s plan and set the terms for the U.S. drawdown.\u00a0That was when everything started to go downhill." https:\/\/t.co\/bZMklQaFqw<\/a><\/p>\n

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) August 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n