I don’t believe the narrative of US intelligence being surprised the Taliban took over as quickly as they did

I think Trump and GOP had this plan laid out

1) Commit to withdraw near end of the term and reap the benefits/good public opinion of getting out of a unpopular war

2) Put the democratic politician coming into office in a bad spot where they’ll be the administration dealing with the backlash and consequences. They would have never been able to delay or revoke the decision to withdraw as that would have been extremely unpopular.

3) Leverage the blow back of the decision and issues it causes the Democratic administration in the next elections.

4) if republican administration returns, push for a policy of further foreign interference by typical claims of needing to fight the Taliban and its allies/terrorist network.

Yall conspiracy theorists crazy

It’s just a question/rationale based on observations

The GOP will always promote foreign/military intervention in the long term

I wouldn't be surprised. It's standard for Republican admins to hand things off to a Democrat admin in rough shape.

More than likely though GOP is just spinning this latest disaster in a way that makes them look more competent, without going as far as to explicitly support the Taliban.

To point 3: it would’ve been unpopular for Biden to come in and say “nah were gonna stay”. But leaders should be trying to make the right choice, not the popular choice. He could’ve blamed it all on Trump, and it would have actually been a lot more popular than what we got.

Obviously

Reagan did the same thing in Iran but in reverse

I hope “you know who” doesn’t respond to my message

No way to ever know

When you consider Trump freed 5,000 (!) Taliban prisoners and drew troops down to just 2500 by the time he left office……….

Trump’s negotiated May 2021 withdrawal was doomed to fail.

Biden could not have accomplished in 4 months what 3 past presidents didn’t in 20 years. Withdrawal from a war is never gonna look pretty, especially when inherited circumstances are so dire

I tried looking that up earlier

Where was that reported

google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/opinion/national-security/568154-trumps-deal-with-the-taliban-set-the-stage-for-the-afghan-collapse%3famp

here’s the bit about troop numbers
“ The agreement anticipated there would be peace negotiations, but in August, Trump voluntarily cut troop levels down to 4,500, even more quickly than required by the agreement, even though negotiations had not even begun. This was a clear signal there would be no linkage between withdrawals and peace, contrary to what U.S. diplomats were telling the parties. This signal was received loud and clear by the Taliban. They balked at starting negotiations until December, and even then, had zero incentive to make any concessions since Trump had already announced that there would be only 2,500 troops in Afghanistan by the time he left office, the smallest U.S. force in 20 years. It was clear to the Taliban that the Americans were quickly headed for the exits.”

and here abt the freed prisoners:

google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/prison-power-taliban-leaders-jail-110000033.html

“The February 2020 peace deal signed by the Trump administration and the Taliban pushed the Afghan government to release up to 5,000 prisoners, some of whom played key roles in the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country.”

and a co-founder of the Taliban was released during the Trump admin and now he’s strolling into Kabul to lead Afghanistan

Also the Afghan government was not even a party to the negotiations. So it was not a purported peace deal, but a withdrawal with no Taliban concessions

Doomed to fail. OP has a point