Who Bears Responsibility For the Taliban Takeover?

A poll by CBS and YouGov shows that most Americans think the Afghan government and army carry a great share of the responsibility for the Taliban takeover, but many survey participants also put considerable blame on Presidents Biden and Trump.

A quarter of Americans believe that former President Donald Trump carries a lot of the responsibility for Afghanistan falling back to the Taliban before the withdrawal of U.S. troops was even complete. In February 2020, Trump and the Taliban had signed an agreement to withdraw all U.S. and NATO troops in 2021. Current President Joe Biden, who followed through with the commitment, was seen as having a lot of responsibility for the developments in Afghanistan by 36 percent of respondents, signaling that a good amount of people believe he shouldn’t have heeded his predecessor’s pledge.

In total, 86 percent and 72 percent of respondents said that Biden and Trump, respectively, carried any of the blame for the Taliban takeover.

Only 37 percent of survey participants said that they disapproved of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan - out of these, 55 percent said that troops should have stayed, while 70 percent said that the removal should have been handled better. Furthermore, 67 percent believed Joe Biden has no clear plan for evacuating American civilians from the country. 81 percent of respondents said interpreters and other local employees of the U.S. military and government should be aided in coming to the U.S.