Biden grounded Afghan Air Force then blamed them for not fighting

Questions continue to mount regarding the Biden administration's complete failure to effectively and safely withdraw from Afghanistan. A major question is how the Afghan military was overcome so quickly by the Taliban after years of fighting alongside US and NATO forces. Where was the air support for the ground troops?

In a speech on Monday, Biden said of the Afghan armed forces: "We gave them every tool they could need, we paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force, something the Taliban doesn't have, the Taliban doesn't have an air force. We provide close-air support. We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future."

"If Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that" more time spent by the US military "would have made any difference," Biden said.

According to the Daily Beast, Afghanistan's US-backed and built air force was dependent on foreign contractors to assist with maintenance of the aircraft. "As the US withdrawal took hold, the Biden administration refused to allow contractors into the country to service the aircraft, effectively grounding some of the Afghan Air Force at the same time as the US had withdrawn direct air support to Afghan forces."

Afghan maintenance personnel had to rely on Zoom calls with American experts to attempt to figure out how to maintain the aircraft. According to photos posted to social media, the Taliban are now in possession of  US-provided A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft and MD-530F helicopters.

In July, almost a month before the withdrawal, the Afghan Air Force ran out of laser-guided weaponry, AKA "smart bombs," after Biden announced a withdrawal date from Afghanistan and stopped providing the weaponry, according to a senior Afghan lawmaker.

According to the Washington Examiner, in a virtual briefing, Afghan parliament member Haji Ajmal Rahmani told the State Department Correspondents' Association, "They're completely out of stock for the laser munitions. It's not low, it's actually out of stock."

Rahmani explained that Afghan forces were left without munitions at a time when NATO forces were expecting them to continue carrying out most of the airstrikes. "It was a hasty withdrawal. When they have made a request, the feedback was it will take some more time because they have to make the orders and it will take time to produce and ship to Afghanistan, and they are talking up around one year, more or less, until it will reach Afghanistan."

It was revealed in early July that the Taliban were targeting Afghan Air Force pilots for assassination in preparation for the US pull-out from the country. An investigation by Reuters found that at least seven Afghan pilots at that time had already been assassinated off the base.

"This series of targeted killings, which haven't been previously reported, illustrate what US and Afghan officials believe is a deliberate Taliban effort to destroy one of Afghanistan's most valuable military assets: its corps of US- and NATO-trained military pilots. In so doing, the Taliban—who have no air force—are looking to level the playing field as they press major ground offensives. The militants are quickly seizing territory once controlled by the US-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, raising fears they could eventually try to topple Kabul."

A Taliban spokesman told Reuters that they had "targeted and eliminated" the pilots "because all of them do bombardment against their people."

Afghan Ambassador to the US Adela Raz had previously begged the President Biden to reverse its stance on the "feasibility" of urgent air support to Afghan forces. "It is feasible because you did that, you did that post 9/11, and it was effective. You took control of the entire country in two weeks, and I was there," Raz said, speaking to News Nation Wednesday, and referring to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby’s comments earlier in the day that it wasn't always "feasible" for the US to provide air support to Afghan forces.

Bagram Airfield, just north of Kabul, was closed by the US on July 1 and turned over to Afghan forces, even as the Taliban were taking over large areas of the country. However, apparently the US forgot to tell the Afghans and cut the power to the base, which signaled looters to raid the facility.

All of these actions were taken by the Biden administration despite repeated warnings from both the US military and the Afghan government. The administration continued to ignore reports of the Taliban conquering the country and proceeded with the withdrawal, leaving US military personnel, American civilians and American Afghan allies as well as the citizens of Afghanistan vulnerable to the Taliban.