Former President Donald Trump on Sunday praised withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan, while knocking his successor’s timeline for doing so.
Trump said that while leaving Afghanistan is “a wonderful and positive thing to do,” he had set a May 1 withdrawal deadline and added that “we should keep as close to that schedule as possible.”
“I wish Joe Biden wouldn’t use September 11 as the date to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, for two reasons. First, we can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long,” Trump said, adding: “September 11 represents a very sad event and period for our Country and should remain a day of reflection and remembrance honoring those great souls we lost.”
“Precipitously withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan is a grave mistake. It is a retreat in the face of an enemy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor. “Foreign terrorists will not leave the United States alone simply because our politicians have grown tired of taking the fight to them.”
The war has cost the lives of 2,448 American service members and consumed an estimated $US2 trillion.
Biden will formally announce the withdrawal and other specifics in a White House speech Wednesday detailing “the way forward in Afghanistan,” press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The al-Qaeda terrorist network no longer possesses the capability to plot an attack that would threaten US soil, the White House said, insisting Biden isn’t taking an eye off terrorism.
The White House said Biden will also seek “diplomatic, economic and humanitarian tools” with other countries to protect recent civil rights gained by Afghan women.