Republicans Cheney, Sasse Blame Trump and Biden for Removing Troops, 'The Backbone of Intelligence'

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate intelligence committee, issued a statement on Sunday saying that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden "deliberately decided to lose" the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

“The unmitigated disaster in Afghanistan — the shameful, Saigon-like abandonment of Kabul, the brutalization of Afghan women, and the slaughter of our allies — is the predictable outcome of the Trump-Biden doctrine of weakness," Sasse wrote:

History must be clear about this: American troops didn’t lose this war — Donald Trump and Joe Biden deliberately decided to lose.

Politicians lied: America’s options were never simply this disgraceful withdrawal or an endless occupation force of 100,000 troops (we haven’t had that in Afghanistan in a decade). America’s leaders didn’t tell the truth that our small, forward-deployed force of a few thousand was the backbone of intelligence and special forces’ successful work to decapitate terror organizations.

The looming defeat will badly hurt American intelligence and give jihadis a safe haven in Afghanistan, again. America will regret this. Our allies will trust us less and our adversaries fear us less. China is already exploiting this latest instance of American retreat. We need a long-term national security strategy.

(In a second statement issued on Monday, Sasse slammed President Biden for hiding out: “While Afghanistan falls to jihadi militants, our Afghan allies are on the verge of slaughter, and America gets humiliated, President Biden hides out at Camp David. It’s unacceptable. The mission at this point ought to be simple: bolster American troops and firepower until we can get flights running around the clock. The Taliban must not dictate when every last American, our courageous Afghan partners, and their families are off the tarmac.”)