‘F*** that, we don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.’
Despite widespread claims that the intelligence community knew Kabul could fall to the Taliban within weeks if the US quickly withdrew the bulk of its military assets, Biden went over the heads of his military advisors and oversaw a hasty evacuation of US personnel.
Holbrooke was appointed as a special advisor on Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2009 and was one of the Obama administration’s principle advisors on US policy in the countries until his death in December of 2010.
According to his diary, much of which was turned over to his official biographer George Packer following his death, Biden made his ruthless comparison between pulling out of Afghanistan and the withdrawal of US troops from southeast Asia just months before Holbrooke’s died.
The diary painted Biden as one of the most vocal critics of the war in Afghanistan and a skeptic of America’s commitment to the Afghan people.
