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Seattle congressman blames Afghan chaos on US failure to accept reality

A Seattle congressman blames the chaos in Afghanistan on the U.S. government’s unwillingness to accept reality. Rep. Adam Smith is the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, making him the top-ranking member of Congress in the House on military affairs.

Asked if the chaos could have been avoided, he responded, “I think certainly a good chunk of it could have. I think what was unavoidable was the Taliban takeover of the country.”

He believes the U.S. could have been much better prepared.

“The U.S. was unwilling basically to admit defeat to the Taliban. That unwillingness to accept reality ultimately led us to make decisions that made it worse than it had to be.”

That’s why, Smith says, the United States didn’t negotiate with the Taliban to get more of the Afghan civilians who worked with us out before our military left. Instead, we trusted the Afghan Security Forces to hold the line.

“In the end, I think we should have listened more carefully to the CIA and understood that the Taliban were going to take power. And if we had been willing to accept that reality, we would have changed our planning.”

Smith has seen the video of Afghan civilians desperately clinging to a C-17 cargo jet from Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

“Profound sadness… there was promise in Afghanistan that was never realized. And it’s a tragedy,” he said.

Smith visited Washington National Guard soldiers when they served in Afghanistan as part of America’s response to the 9/11 attacks.

“And I hope that we don’t have this 20/20 hindsight that says we shouldn’t have done it because if we hadn’t, Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban would still be operating against us,” he said.

Smith said his committee will hold a hearing to determine why the government wasn’t better prepared.