Rep Liz Cheney: Situation In Afghanistan Is ”Catastrophic”
Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney says the current military situation faced by the Afghan government in its war against the Taliban is "in many ways, catastrophic."
Cheney made the comments in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.
President Biden announced earlier this year that all American forces will withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11, and the Afghan government has been rapidly losing ground in its war against the Taliban, a fundamentalist Islamic political and military organization. U.S. troops originally went into Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
In her interview with Hewitt, Cheney had the following comments:
And what's happening is not a surprise, it's what was clear would happen. It is, you know, in many ways catastrophic. The United States had approximately 2,500 forces in Afghanistan conducting counterterrorism, counterinsurgency missions, working very closely with the Afghans to help to ensure the Taliban was not able to establish this kind of control of territory, to ensure the Taliban and their close allies, continued allies, fighting partners, al Qaeda, did not get themselves into a position where they could have free rein and set up safe havens again for terrorist training camps of the kind we saw prior to 9/11. Joe Biden, President Biden, made the decision to withdraw all of our forces, and what we're seeing now is the consequence of that. And it really is devastating.
Former President Donald Trump is also criticizing Biden's handling of the war in Afghanistan. Trump on Thursday issued a statement including the following comments on how he would handle the Afghan war if he was still president
''The world would find that our withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a conditions-based withdrawal. I personally had discussions with top Taliban leaders whereby they understood what they are doing now would not have been acceptable. It would have been a much different and much more successful withdrawal, and the Taliban understood that better than anyone. What is going on now is not acceptable. It should have been done much better."
Trump had announced plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan when he was president. Cheney has been a persistent critic of withdrawing U.S. troops from the Asian nation.
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