Former President Donald Trump slammed the Biden Administration's "rushed" withdrawal of military assets from Afghanistan again, adding that there has "never been a greater embarrassment" to the US, due to "an incompetent person" leading it.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump, while discussing the events of September 11, 2001, highlighted what he dubbed a "terrible week in our history recently."
"To have that embarrassment to take place in Afghanistan with the same people who did the damage 20 years ago — it is the greatest embarrassment in the history of our country. [...] There has never been anything like this. It looks like we fled, and it is all because we have an incompetent person as the leader of our country."
Trump, who as president secured an agreement with the Taliban for a troop departure with an initial deadline in May, assured again that this "never would have happened" under his presidency.
"I didn’t even stick to it because I wanted to get out by May 1, and when they violated conditions, we bombed and did a lot of things," Trump is quoted as saying. "They adhered to one condition— don’t kill Americans or soldiers."
The former president also said that over the 18-month period, the US had not lost a single "soldier or an American," hence the withdrawal and peace process were "going along very well."
"They never would have come anywhere near us. It wouldn’t have happened, they wouldn’t have taken over anything," the ex-president claimed. "They knew that if they did, they would be bombed into hell."
'Big Open Wound, Void' to Be Filled by Taliban
Trump said of the Biden administration's withdrawal of US forces, which ended on August 31 with all the country's military assets removed, that it "created this big open wound, a void, and the Taliban just came in and filled it, and within 24 hours, they controlled the whole country."
"When I heard they were taking the military out, I thought, that’s inconceivable," said the ex-president, stressing that things like that "should have ever happened."
"They should have never taken the military out first—you take the military out last, after all of the people are out," Trump said while addressing the dozens of Americans and Afghan allies still left in the country.
The mission of evacuation has ended its military phase and entered a "diplomatic" phase, according to the Biden administration. And based on the latest official statements and media reports, the State Department is focusing on a diplomatic mission to remove known American citizens and Afghan allies in Afghanistan, which they estimate to be around 100 people.
2 September 2021, 11:06 GMT
Thus, the administration announced on Thursday that Americans, not specifying if it was those who have reportedly been kept on the ground at the airport in Afghanistan's northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, had been safely evacuated from Kabul to Qatar, and that the Taliban had been "cooperative" and "business-like and professional" while administration officials worked to evacuate US citizens.
A 'Sad & Pathetic' Withdrawal
The former president said that the Biden administration "looks like fools" and that its rhetoric following the completion of the withdrawal is "sad and pathetic."
"These are the people that knocked down the World Trade Center. These are the people who have treated people so inhumanely, so badly," Trump said, while asking rhetorically, "I mean, we have been fighting them for 25 years, and to think that they’re now reliable?"
Furthermore, the attention of the former president shifted toward the huge amount of military equipment and vehicles, estimated by him to be worth about $85 billion, left in the war-torn country and allegedly inherited by the Taliban. Trump noted that once the US had "tremendous airpower," which is now in the hands of the Taliban.
Trump also praised his administration's diplomatic and military successes in the Middle East, claiming that he "got rid of 100% of the ISIS caliphate, [Iranian general] Soleimani, [Daesh* head] al Baghdadi," while also brokering the Abraham Accords, a peace pact between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that restored diplomatic relations.
"We would have had peace in the Middle East. [...] But the US looks like a bunch of fools right now. We look like we surrendered," he noted. "We look like we ran."
In the end, Trump came to the conclusion that the US has "to do what we have to do."
"We’re an embarrassed country, and we’ve never had anything like this," Trump stressed. "We’re not respected anymore….We're disrespected all over the world."
"I think Biden rushed it to try to claim victory, and now, he looks like a fool."
According to US National Security Council Spokesperson Emily Horne, the government supported the evacuation of 21 Americans and 11 lawful permanent residents from Kabul airport and overland to a neighboring country as of Friday. However, she stressed that details of the operations will not be shared due to the ongoing threat of terrorism.
*The Taliban, Daesh are terrorist groups banned in Russia and a number of other countries.