'We never even had a chance': Afghan commander blames Donald Trump, Joe Biden and his own president for Taliban's rapid takeover of his country after US withdrawal

A three-star general in the Afghan Army has blamed Donald Trump, Joe Biden and his own former president for his country's rapid fall to the Talivan.

Sami Sadat said Trump's peace agreement with the Taliban in February 2020 essentially set the doomsday clock in motion. 

Biden's tone and disrespect towards the Afghan army showed a 'growing sense of abandonment by our American partners', Sadat said. 

And he blasted former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for addressing his people and saying he was going to save them, and then fled 48 hours later. 

'I never even had a chance,' Sadat said in a New York Times op-ed, claiming the political leaders' decisions meant that the Afghan army 'lost its will to fight.' 

'There is an enormous sense of betrayal here. Mr. Ghani’s hasty escape ended efforts to negotiate an interim agreement for a transition period with the Taliban that would have enabled us to hold the city (of Kabul) and help manage evacuations. 

'Instead, chaos ensued — resulting in the desperate scenes witnessed at the Kabul airport.

'It was in response to those scenes that Mr. Biden said on Aug. 16 that the Afghan forces collapsed, "sometimes without trying to fight." But we fought, bravely, until the end. We lost 66,000 troops over the past 20 years; that’s one-fifth of our estimated fighting force.'

Sami Sadat, a three-star general in the Afghan army, said Afghanistan's defeat was an international political failure more than a military loss

Sadat said his troops were demoralized by Biden's words and tone 

US military couldn't engage in with the Taliban as they slaughtered the Afghan army and overtook the country because of Trump's February 2020 peace treaty 

Sadat admitted the Afghan army isn't without its issues and without blame for the loss, but the US and Afghan governments left them without guidance. 

He told of how in the final days of the fight against the Taliban, US jets would hover overhead and 'spectate' while his forces took in the Taliban.  

Trump's peace deal with the Taliban 'put an expiration date on American interest in the region' and 'emboldened the Taliban' because the U.S. military wouldn't engage in conflict. 

The peace deal brokered by the US didn't extended to Ghani and the country's infant democracy, which the Taliban didn't acknowledge as its government. 

'(The Taliban) could sense victory and knew it was just a matter of waiting out the Americans. Before that deal, the Taliban had not won any significant battles against the Afghan Army. After the agreement? We were losing dozens of soldiers a day,' Sadat said. 

Sadat said Trump's peace treaty with the Taliban 'emboldened the Taliban' because they weren't going to have to face power of the U.S. military 

Afghans make their way through a flooded street towards a nearby airport entrance to try their chance at evacuating out of the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 25,

Then Biden announced he would continue Trump's plan, announced the August 31 withdrawal and 'that's when everything went downhill,' the commander said. 

'The Taliban had a firm end date from the Americans and feared no military reprisal for anything they did in the interim, sensing the lack of U.S. will,' Sadat said.   

Contractors left - taking with them software that tracked vehicles and ground drones and choppers - air support was gone and ammunition dried up. 

Meanwhile the Taliban used improvised explosive devices, mostly as car bombs, and snipers.  

Then there was the internal corruption and cronyism in the military and Ghani's government, Sadat said, which saw unqualified people parachuted into top jobs because of family connections. 

'The final days of fighting were surreal,' he said. 

As Afghan soldiers died trying to hold their ground, Sadat said U.S. fighter jets 'circled overhead, effectively spectators.' 

'Our sense of abandonment and betrayal was equaled only by the frustration U.S. pilots felt and relayed to us — being forced to witness the ground war, apparently unable to help us,' Sadat said. 

'Overwhelmed by Taliban fire, my soldiers would hear the planes and ask why they were not providing air support. Morale was devastated. 

Biden's August 31 deadline gave the Taliban 'a firm end date' 

Afghan President Ghani fled the country when it was clear the country was going to fall to the Taliban 

The result has been deadly chaos outside the gates of the Kabul airport

'Across Afghanistan, soldiers stopped fighting. We held Lashkar Gah in fierce battles, but as the rest of the country fell, we lacked the support to continue fighting and retreated to base. 

'My corps, which had carried on even after I was called away to Kabul, was one of the last to give up its arms — only after the capital fell.'

He insisted that the rise of the Taliban wasn't a military loss, but an international political failure.