Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney slammed former President Donald Trump on Sunday, saying he shares duty with President Joe Biden for the autumn of Afghanistan into the palms of the Taliban.
The Home Armed Companies committee member and former U.S. State Division official made her feedback in a Sunday interview with ABC Information’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
The 2 mentioned the swift takeover of key Afghan cities by the Islamist rebel group when Karl posed this query:
“You recognize, finally, that is President Biden’s choice. He’s the one which has referred to as for this withdrawal, goes ahead with it. However this didn’t occur in a vacuum. I imply, it was President Trump that negotiated the settlement with the Taliban to have an entire withdrawal that was supposed to really occur by Might 1. So who bears duty?”
“Look, I believe, completely, President Biden bears duty for making the choice,” Cheney stated. “However there’s no query that President Trump, his administration, Secretary [of State Mike] Pompeo, in addition they bear very vital duty for this.”
The Trump administration “walked down this path of legitimizing the Taliban, of perpetuating this fantasy, telling the American folks that the Taliban have been a companion for peace,” she stated, pointing to some statements the previous president made when his administration signed an settlement with the Islamist group in February final yr.
“President Trump instructed us the Taliban was going to combat terror. Secretary Pompeo instructed us that the Taliban was going to surrender al-Qaida,” Cheney stated.
“In the present day, as we watched, the Taliban, for instance, launched prisoners throughout Afghanistan,” she stated. “There’s very actual concern that they’re not simply fighters in these prisons who will be part of the battle in Afghanistan, however that terrorist teams globally will in truth be fed, you recognize, new troopers of their battle on terror from these prisons. It’s a devastating set of circumstances.
“However the delegitimization of the Afghan authorities, the notion within the Trump administration, the suggestion that, at one level, they have been saying they have been going to ask the Taliban to Camp David,” she stated.
Do you agree with Liz Cheney?
“On Sept. 11,” Karl stated, referring to when Trump allegedly contemplated inviting the Taliban’s leaders to Camp David three days earlier than the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist assaults, as reported by The New York Times.
“Yeah,” Cheney stated. “I imply, they, they, this catastrophe definitely started — and look, the notion of, ‘We’re going to finish countless wars,’ that marketing campaign slogan, what we’re watching proper now in Afghanistan is what occurs when America withdraws from the world. So all people who has been saying, ‘America must withdraw, America must retreat,’ we’re getting a devastating, catastrophic, real-time lesson in what which means.”
“The Trump/Biden calamity unfolding in Afghanistan started with the Trump administration negotiating with terrorists and pretending they have been companions for peace and is ending with American give up as Biden abandons the nation to our terrorist enemies,” Cheney stated in a Sunday post on Twitter.
The Trump/Biden calamity unfolding in Afghanistan started with the Trump administration negotiating with terrorists and pretending they have been companions for peace, and is ending with American give up as Biden abandons the nation to our terrorist enemies. https://t.co/PQ1i5W6zZt
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) August 14, 2021
In an try to meet a marketing campaign promise of bringing American troops dwelling, the Trump administration signed an agreement with the Taliban in February 2020 in Doha, Qatar.
The federal government in Kabul, which the U.S. then acknowledged because the legit authorities of Afghanistan, was not a part of this settlement between the Trump administration and the Taliban, who hosted al-Qaida, the fear group that carried out the 9/11 assaults.
The settlement stated the U.S. would “withdraw from Afghanistan all army forces of the US, its allies, and Coalition companions, together with all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, non-public safety contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting companies personnel inside fourteen (14) months following announcement of this settlement.”
Underneath the settlement, the withdrawal was assured offered the Taliban didn’t allow “any of its members, different people or teams, together with al-Qa’ida, to make use of the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the safety of the US and its allies.”
The settlement stated the Trump administration and the Taliban search “search optimistic relations with one another and count on that the relations between the US and the brand new post-settlement Afghan Islamic authorities as decided by the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations might be optimistic.”
Trump would later say the Taliban have been “nice fighters. You recognize that clearly. They’re nice fighters,” as reported by the Times, and “powerful,” “good” and “sharp,” as Reuters reported.
Although proof emerged that the Taliban was flouting its commitments beneath the deal, with a late Might 2020 U.N. report discovering the rebel group to be nonetheless supporting al-Qaida, the Trump administration didn’t change its withdrawal deadline of Might 1 this yr.
In August 2020, the Kabul authorities introduced the discharge of 5,000 Taliban prisoners after it had been pressured to take action by the Trump administration, in response to the Times.
Kabul-based journalist Hikmat Noori, whom I interviewed in June, instructed me that this occasion performed a significant position within the “spike within the violence” within the nation because the U.S. started to attract down its army presence in Afghanistan.
After the Biden administration took over, it determined to proceed with the withdrawal regardless of the Taliban’s demonstrated disregard of the settlement. Nonetheless, Biden modified the date from Might 1 to Sept. 11 earlier than altering his thoughts and making it Aug. 31.
His administration always downplayed the specter of a Taliban takeover and the withdrawal’s doable similarity to the chaotic U.S. departure from Saigon on the finish of the Vietnam Battle.
“There’s going to be no circumstance the place you’re going to see folks being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the US from Afghanistan.” – Biden pic.twitter.com/JrW5io04Zg
— The Federalist (@FDRLST) August 16, 2021
As the US started to withdraw its troopers, the Islamist group stored gaining floor over latest months till it captured all giant cities and Kabul by Sunday.
Afghanistan is now beneath the control of the Taliban as key authorities officers, together with President Ashraf Ghani, fled.
On Monday, the U.S. was nonetheless attempting to evacuate its embassy workers and Afghans who helped the nation throughout its battle in opposition to terrorism for 20 years in Central Asia from the crowded Kabul airport, the place civilians have been desperately trying to flee the Taliban.
https://www.westernjournal.com/liz-cheney-no-question-trump-bears-responsibility-aftermath-bidens-afghanistan-decision/ | ‘No Query’ Trump Bears Accountability for Aftermath of Biden’s Afghanistan Choice