Earlier this week, Donald Trump insisted that the White House should “bomb the hell out of” the Taliban* if the militant group does not return US military hardware seized during their takeover of Afghanistan.
Former President Donald Trump has slammed the US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as a “humiliation” for the nation, also demanding that Joe Biden extend his apologies to the global community over the matter.
In an interview with the US news network Fox Business on Tuesday, Trump said the pullout was “a disaster” because “they [the Taliban] told us to get out, they gave us a date and that was it”.
“That withdrawal was an absolute humiliation of the United States of America and the admirals and the generals are right, and more than that [he] should resign”, the ex-POTUS argued.
He was referring to a recent letter signed by 90 retired senior US military officials who urged the resignation of Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley over “the disastrous” US troop exit from Afghanistan.
When asked what Biden ought to tell the nation in connection with the end of the US mission in Afghanistan, Trump said that POTUS “should say ‘I’m sorry’ because he owes an apology”.
“I think the best thing he can do is apologise to the American people and apologise to the world […]. The whole world deserves an apology”, the 45th president told Fox Business.
Trump also berated Biden for his behaviour at a solemn ceremony to pay last respects to the 13 US Marines killed in a Daesh-K* terror attack on the Kabul Airport last week. It appeared that POTUS glanced at his watch during the ceremony, something that Trump claimed reflected Biden’s unwillingness to be there.
It’s true. Joe Biden checked his watch during the dignified transfer of the servicemembers killing in Afghanistan at the airport. You can see him jerk his left hand to pull the watch out from under his sleeve, then look down at it. pic.twitter.com/M3QVzJbTIm— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) August 29, 2021
“[…] When he kept looking at his watch at Dover with the parents and spouses of people who were killed, Marines and the Navy […], looking at his watch like get me out of here, I want to go home, get me out. How many times did he look at his watch when he did that yesterday? It was a disgrace”, the former US president said.
Biden’s Address to the Nation
The interview came shortly before Biden delivered a speech to the American people regarding the US exit from Afghanistan and the end of the almost 20-year war, which cost the United States at least $2.4 trillion.
During the speech, which saw no apologies, the US president called the chaotic American evacuation mission in Afghanistan “an extraordinary success”, even though it has been widely criticised both by Democrats and Republicans, even triggering calls for Biden and the US military leadership to resign.
POTUS also stressed that he was not going to extend the forever war or a forever exit from Afghanistan, and that he disagrees with those who say the evacuation could have been done in a more orderly fashion.
“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit”, Biden said. “Now some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner, and couldn’t this have been done in a more orderly manner. I respectfully disagree”, he said.
Trump Calls for Crackdown on Taliban
The remarks followed Trump saying in a statement on Monday that Washington should demand that the Taliban return each and every piece of American military hardware, seized during the insurgents’ takeover of the country or crack down on the militant group.
“In addition to the obvious, all equipment should be demanded to be immediately returned to the United States, and that includes every penny of the $85 billion dollars in cost. If it is not handed back, we should either go in with unequivocal military force and get it, or at least bomb the hell out of it”, Trump stressed.
He also hit out at the Biden administration’s handling of the US troop pullout from Afghanistan, noting that “nobody ever thought such stupidity, as this feeble-brained withdrawal, was possible”.
The former president argued that “never in history has a withdrawal from war been handled so badly or incompetently as the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan”.
*The Taliban and Daesh-K are terrorist groups banned in many countries.
