US Intelligence had warned Biden admin of possible Afghan military collapse

Washington, Aug 17 (UNI/Sputnik) The US intelligence community was increasingly pessimistic about the Afghan army being able to resist the Taliban’s (banned in Russia) rapid offensive and repeatedly warned the Biden administration as the president himself believed that was unlikely to happen, the New York Times reported on Tuesday citing unnamed government officials.
While Biden was reassuring the American public that Afghanistan would not be a quick prey for the Taliban (banned in Russia) after the withdrawal of the US troops from the country, a number of intelligence reports predicted that should the insurgency group start seizing cities, a collapse could happen rapidly and the Afghan security forces would be on a brink of falling apart, according to the report.
An intelligence report in July noted that the Afghan government was unprepared for a Taliban (banned in Russia) assault as many country’s districts and major cities fell to their hands, the report said.
At the same time, even as late as a week before the Taliban (banned in Russia) seized power in Kabul on Sunday, US intelligence was reluctant to conclude that the end of the Afghan government and army was inevitable, according to the report.
Notwithstanding that US intelligence agencies have long predicted an ultimate Taliban victory, they didn’t predict a collapse of the Afghan defense forces to happen within weeks. When the State Department ordered the departure of nonessential personnel from the embassy in Kabul on April 27, the intelligence assessment was that the Taliban (banned in Russia) will be able to take over Afghanistan not earlier than in 18 months, according to administration officials.
On Sunday, the Taliban completed their takeover of Afghanistan by entering Kabul. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani resigned and left the country to prevent what he described as bloodshed that would occur if militants had to fight for the city.