Speed of Taliban advance stuns countries as US scrambles to airlift embassy staff
A little more than a month ago, US President Joe Biden was telling reporters there was “zero” chance of a parallel between the chaotic American withdrawal from Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and the drawdown in Kabul as part of a deal with the Taliban.
“The Taliban is not the…North Vietnamese army. They’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of [the US] embassy in…Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable,” Biden said during a media interaction on July 8.
