There are no parallels between the US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year and the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.
Kirby told Bill Hemmer on Fox News Sunday that they were still analyzing what happened in August, when the Taliban took control.
There is not a lot of similarity between what we are seeing in Ukraine and what we saw in Afghanistan. We were ending a 20-year war there, and we had to evacuate 124,000 people in two weeks.
CBS News reported on Sunday that Russian commanders have received orders to push forward on an invasion. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he was convinced that Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine. According to The Wall Street Journal, the White House approved a Pentagon plan to prepare for the arrival of fleeing Americans if Russia invaded Ukraine.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan last year was a low point in Biden's presidency. At least 169 Afghans and 13 US service members were killed in a terrorist attack near the Kabul airport, making it the deadliest day for US military members in the country since 2011. A US drone strike intended to prevent another attack by the Islamic State accidentally killed 10 civilians, including seven children.
Kirby said on Sunday that this is not the same situation.
At the same time, all of our administration officials have been out and about trying to find a diplomatic path forward, and at the same time, here at the Department of Defense, shoring up our NATO allies, making sure they know that we are with them, and that our commitment to
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