WASHINGTON — Less than four weeks before the fall of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden urged Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani to demonstrate a more capable military defense to change the “perception” as the Taliban made significant gains.
Biden relayed that message in a July 23 phone call, according to excerpts reported by Reuters that shed new light on Biden’s thinking before the Taliban on Aug. 15 abruptly seized control of the Afghan government.
Neither leader discussed the threat of an imminent Taliban takeover in their last phone call, but one theme was consistent from Biden: the situation needed to improve to change the optics in the final month before the U.S. was to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden told Ghani, according to a transcript of the 14-minute phone call published by Reuters that matched audio reviewed by the publication.
“And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”
Two weeks before the call, on July 8, Biden told reporters in the U.S. that it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would take control of Afghnistan.
That prediction proved wildly incorrect. The Taliban quickly took over…
