Former US President Donald Trump on Saturday used the 20th
anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to slam the “horrible” withdrawal from Afghanistan
and the “incompetence” of Joe Biden’s administration during the frenzied end to
America’s longest war.
“It’s a horrible thing that took place, a horrible, horrible
thing,” Trump said in televised comments during a visit to the New York Police
Department’s 17th precinct.
“It looked like we retreated, it looked like we gave up.
Like, they use the word surrender,” he told officers at the precinct, referring
to the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan last month following the
Taliban takeover of the country.
“And we didn’t surrender, our people didn’t surrender and our soldiers sure as hell didn’t surrender,” he said.
The US military intervention in Afghanistan began in late
2001 in the wake of Al-Qaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon outside the US capital.
Al-Qaeda had been sheltering in Taliban-held Afghanistan,
and the US invasion toppled the extremist regime in a bid to find Al-Qaeda’s
leaders.
But the Taliban soon launched an insurgency and, after two
decades of war, stormed back to power last month as the US military was
completing its withdrawal.
During his presidency, Trump brokered a deal with the
Taliban in February 2020 that would have seen all US troops out by May 2021 in
return for security guarantees from the insurgents.
But it was his successor Biden who carried out the
withdrawal, moving the date back to August 31 but lifting all conditions.
The Taliban captured Kabul and the Afghan government
collapsed on August 15, giving the US and its allies two weeks to conduct one
of the biggest airlifts in history, marked by scenes of desperation as Afghans
desperate to flee crowded the airport.
One Islamic State-claimed suicide blast at the airport
killed dozens of Afghan civilians and 13 US troops during the evacuation, the
highest toll for America in the war in years.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump also released a video message
calling September 11 a “very sad day” and again slammed the Afghan withdrawal.
He blamed “bad planning, incredible weakness and leaders who
truly didn’t understand what was happening.”
“Joe Biden and his inept administration surrendered in
defeat,” Trump said in the message.
“We will struggle to recover from the embarrassment this
incompetence has caused.”
Trump did not attend the formal 9/11 anniversary ceremony at
Ground Zero in New York, as did Biden and former presidents Bill Clinton and
Barack Obama.
Trump was to return to Florida on Saturday to provide
ringside commentary at the fight between former world heavyweight champion
Evander Holyfield and Brazilian mixed martial arts star Vitor Belfort.
AFP
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