Former US President Donald Trump has once again attacked his Democratic successor Joe Biden over his handling of the retreat of American forces from Afghanistan, calling it “the greatest foreign policy humiliation” in the country’s history.
During a rally in Alabama on Saturday, Trump, a Republican, repeatedly blamed Biden for Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban despite the fact that the US pullout that triggered the collapse was negotiated by his own administration.
“Joe Biden was going on vacation as Afghanistan was going to hell,” Trump told supporters at the rally near Cullman. “This is what you get when you have weakness in the White House. You can’t have weakness in the White House. They have to respect your president.”
“Biden’s botched exit from Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation’s leader, perhaps at any time,” he said.
This comes as the Taliban’s political leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, arrived in Kabul on Saturday to discuss with senior political and tribal leaders of Afghanistan the prospect of forming a new “inclusive” government.
Facing harsh criticism over his handling of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden has criticized the Afghan military for refusing to fight and declared he inherited a bad withdrawal agreement from Trump.
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He even insisted no mistakes were made in crafting the US exit plan, saying on ABC Wednesday, “The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens.”
He has also said he is counting on cooperation from the Taliban, which the US went to war with and which eventually ousted the US-sponsored Afghan government a week ago.
At his rally, Trump pinned the blame for the situation on Biden for not following the plan his administration came up with and complained about US personnel and equipment being left behind as troops withdrew.
“This is not a withdrawal. This was a total surrender,” he said.
He also suggested that the quick takeover of Afghanistan would not have happened if he was still in office.
“We could have gotten out with honor,” Trump added. “We should have gotten out with honor. And instead, we got out with the exact opposite of honor.”
