Thousands of American soldiers being sent to Afghanistan to evacuate embassy staff from Kabul as the Taliban push towards the city has revived painful US memories of the fall of Saigon.
A photo that immortalized America’s defeat in Vietnam, showing evacuees boarding a helicopter on the roof of a building, spread fast on social networks after the United States announced the emergency deployment on Thursday.
“The latest news of a further drawdown at our Embassy and a hasty deployment of military forces seem like preparations for the fall of Kabul,” leading Republican lawmaker Mitch McConnell said.
“President (Joe) Biden’s decisions have us hurtling toward an even worse sequel to the humiliating fall of Saigon in 1975.”
Back in June, as the Taliban advance built momentum, Biden himself addressed the Saigon parallels — and dismissed them out of hand.
“There’s going to be no circumstance where you’ll see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan,” he said.
The same month — since when the Taliban’s lightning offensive has surprised many US military officials — the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Mark Milley also rejected comparisons to the desperate exit from Saigon.
“I do not see that unfolding,” Milley said. “I may be wrong, who knows, you can’t predict the future, but I don’t see Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan. The Taliban just aren’t the North Vietnamese Army. It’s not that kind of situation.”
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{Matzav.com}
