On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) said the chaotic situation in Afghanistan was predictable because “We had information about how the Taliban could likely control the country.” And that many of the questions that were asked at a Friday briefing with lawmakers and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley “went unanswered.”
Cardin said, “[W]e should have been able to predict the chaos that is occurring today. We had information about how the Taliban could likely control the country. We should have been prepared to take necessary steps faster.”
He added, “I think we should have had contingency plans to be able to deal with the extraction of those who helped us and Americans in a much more orderly way.”
Cardin concluded, “We asked questions, what happens to someone who’s not in Kabul that we’re trying to get to, how are they going to get that information? How are they safely going to be able to get to the airport? There [are] a lot of questions that went unanswered.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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