The Taliban reportedly mocked America by releasing an image that mimics the iconic photograph of U.S. soldiers raising the flag during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
The picture, which shows the members of the militant group's Badri 313 Battalion wearing American military gears, gained various reactions from personalities, blaming the Biden administration, The Blaze reported.
"The Taliban is wearing our gear, mocking Iwo Jima. Biden must resign or be impeached and removed. Dems can never hold power again," conservative commentator John Cardillo tweeted.
The Taliban is wearing our gear, mocking Iwo Jima.
Biden must resign or be impeached and removed.
Dems can never hold power again. pic.twitter.com/E06UHjyGYs
"” John Cardillo (@johncardillo) August 21, 2021
"This just keeps getting worse and worse! #Taliban mocks iconic Iwo Jima picture wearing U.S. gear left behind by the @JoeBiden woke administration," Former Navy SEAL Jonathan Gilliam said.
Newsweek shared that Meghan McCain also expressed her reaction by quoting a tweet from Clay Travis about the photo.
"We're a laughing stock of the world," McCain captioned.
"The Taliban dressed up in American military gear we left behind when we fled the country and staged their own mock Iwo Jima photo," Travis wrote.
The New York Post also captured the reaction of Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican representative.
"This is Joe Biden's legacy for all the world to see," Stefanik said.
The Islamic group was able to acquire the weapons and equipment of the U.S. military following the capture of Kabul on August 15, when the government collapsed after Former President Ashraf Ghani fled out of the country. Accumulated through the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, the weaponry and equipment cost the United States $83 billion, which only fell into the hands of the group that they wanted to weaken.
According to Vox, Biden had long been skeptical of America's goal to subdue the Taliban, as documented by Bob Woodward in his book, "Obama's Wars." Biden was Obama's vice-president for two terms.
In the book, Woodward reportedly said that during a debate in 2009, whether the United States should send more U.S. troops in Afghanistan as its counterinsurgency mission to stabilize the South Asian country, the former vice president opposed the proposal. He believed that the plan to strengthen the country's military and police force is "doomed."
That year, the top generals were said to have asked 17,000 more troops and an additional 40,000 to help the Afghan government. Though Biden did not advise the withdrawal of the U.S. military, he suggested to send a limited mission that focuses on counterterrorism, as well as just half of the number of additional troops that the generals wanted.
At the time, the former vice president argued that foreign interventions will be "very difficult" to succeed in Afghanistan, noting the lack of "reliable partner" in the Afghan government and America's failure to achieve such goal despite the number of U.S. troops they already had in the country.
"We're just prolonging failure at that point," he added.
The Vox observed that several years after the expansion of U.S. presence in the nation, Biden's prediction came true - the move did not result to stability of the Afghan government nor the strengthening of its security forces to defeat the Taliban.
When the U.S. military finally withdrew from the country last July, it was criticized by the Afghan military officials because of the manner of its exit - the U.S. troops allegedly left without notice and shutdown the electricity in the airbase, resulting to its security lapse that allowed looters into the area before the Afghan troops could take over its control.
