The head of the British armed forces has criticised US President Joe Biden's decision to pull the remaining 2,500 US troops out of Afghanistan by September.
The Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, said he believed it could turn out to be a mistake.
General Carter told the BBC: "We went into Afghanistan back in 2001 to prevent international terrorism ever emerging from Afghanistan. In the last 20 years there has been no international terrorist attack mounted from Afghanistan. I think that is a great tribute to our armed forces and of course to the armed forces of the Nato countries that have been committed to this."
He said President’s Biden decision to start pulling out the US contingent by 1 May was “not a decision we hoped for” although NATO subsequently agreed to withdraw all its troops.
US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is "not a decision we’d hoped for but we obviously respect it," says General Sir Nick Carter, Chief of Defence Staff
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) April 16, 2021
He tells @Marthakearney he is proud of what UK armed forces have achieved in Afghanistan#R4Today https://t.co/K9tlogmYmn pic.twitter.com/rNqHWXKZf1
Britain currently has 750 military personnel in Afghanistan, mainly involved in training the Afghan government forces.
General Carter said of Biden’s decision: "It is not a decision that we hoped for but we obviously respect it. It is clearly an acknowledgement of an evolving US strategic posture.
He added that he had a “great deal of pride” at the British Army’s role in Afghanistan since it went in after 9/11.
