Trump: Chaos at Kabul 'made Vietnam look like child's play'

Trump piles on the criticism of Biden over Afghanistan and says the chaos at Kabul ‘made Vietnam look like child’s play’

  • Trump compared the takeover of Kabul to the fall of Saigon  
  • Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden for remaining at Camp David the last few days as Taliban insurgents quickly took the Afghan capital of Kabul
  • He accused the president of ‘surrendering’ to the Taliban and said Biden ‘brought great shame’ to the country
  • Trump demanded Biden step down in a statement to his supporters on Sunday  
  • Biden has insinuated his hands were tied by Trump’s deal with the Taliban 

Donald Trump  tore into Joe Biden again for the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan, saying it made the fall of Saigon ‘look like child’s play.’ 

‘What took place yesterday in Afghanistan made our withdrawal from Vietnam look like child’s play. Perhaps in World history, there has never been a withdrawal operation that has been handled so disastrously,’ the former president wrote in an emailed statement. 

‘A President who has been illegitimately elected has brought great shame, in many ways, to our Country!’

Trump has been heavily critical of Biden’s withdrawal, though his Biden has said he was following his predecessor’s peace deal with the Taliban. 

 ‘The outcome in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal, would have been totally different if the Trump Administration had been in charge. Who or what will Joe Biden surrender to next? Someone should ask him, if they can find him,’ the ex-president suggested on Monday.   

‘He surrendered to the Taliban, who has quickly overtaken Afghanistan and destroyed confidence in American power and influence,’ Trump compared. 

A second statement criticized Biden for not evacuating civilians sooner. 

Another one read, ‘Afghanistan is the most embarrassing military outcome in the history of the United States. It didn’t have to be that way!’  

Biden has said his hands were tied by Trump’s February 2020 deal with the Taliban, a deal which left out the Afghani government and promised US troops would withdraw if only the Taliban agreed not to attack US forces or harbor terrorists like al-Qaeda. 

The Taliban deal was meant to set the stage for a second peace deal, between the Taliban and the Kabul government. Kabul was unhappy with some aspects of the deal, including freeing 5000 Taliban prisoners amid fears they would simply return to the battlefield. 

Biden extended Trump’s initial May 1st deadline for a full military withdrawal, which the former president also criticized at the time.

Trump has insisted it is not the withdrawal he takes issue with but Biden’s strategy for withdrawing.  

Trump sent out another statement Monday morning hitting at Biden for ‘taking out our military’ before Afghan allies and other civilians were evacuated.

‘Can anyone even imagine taking out our Military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge? In addition, these people left topflight and highly sophisticated equipment. Who can believe such incompetence?,’ he in the follow up before again comparing Biden’s administration to his own. 

‘Under my Administration, all civilians and equipment would have been removed,’ Trump said. 

Biden has also laid blame on the Afghan government. 

Trump sent a statement to his followers on Sunday calling on President Biden to ‘resign in disgrace’ on Sunday amid the Talibans’s takeover of Afghanistan after the withdrawal of U.S. troops

Taliban fighters are seen on the back of a vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 16th after the insurgents took the city Sunday

‘Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight,’ Biden said. ‘If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.’ 

Meanwhile, the Defense Department is reportedly pointing the finger at State for slow-walking evacuations. 

Defense officials have said they prepared for worst-case scenarios, and have expressed frustration that State Department officials didn’t speed up getting personnel and allies out. 

Biden has been at Camp David, the president’s official country retreat, over the weekend as the Taliban swept over Afghanistan in a stunningly paced offensive and took Kabul Sunday.  He returned from the retreat only to give an 18-minute address at the White House where he stood by his withdrawal decision, took no questions then returned to Camp David. 

Meanwhile the Pentagon deployed 6,000 troops to the region for people trying to flee and the White House released a photo of Biden at Camp David, sitting at a wide table by himself and appearing to have a virtual meeting with various officials including Kamala Harris.  

Commercial flights were later suspended after sporadic gunfire erupted at the airport, but on Tuesday began again.

As of Tuesday, there were 3,500 people on the ground at Hamid Karzai International Airport, and US military flights were taking off with American citizens and US embassy personnel on board. 

On Monday, the US evacuated 700 people, including 150 American citizens.  

Joe Biden has not directly addressed the country yet, but the White House released a photo Sunday of the president virtually meeting with senior officials and his national security team while at Camp David

Chaos and fear spread at Kabul’s airport on August 16th as hundreds of people try to flee the Taliban

‘This morning, the President and Vice President met with their national security team and senior officials to hear updates on the draw down of our civilian personnel in Afghanistan, evacuations of SIV applicants and other Afghan allies, and the ongoing security situation in Kabul,’ the picture was captioned on Twitter. 

 

Republicans delete webpage praising Trump’s ‘historic peace deal with the Taliban’ and his support for withdrawing troops as the Taliban takes control

 The Republican National Committee has taken down a page from their website highlighting Donald Trump’s support for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and his ‘historic peace agreement with the Taliban’.

The page, removed around the same time Trump called on Biden to resign over the chaos in Afghanistan on Sunday night, was titled ‘President Trump Is Bringing Peace In The Middle East’ and described how he ‘continued to take the lead in peace talks’.

It also claimed ‘while President Trump has championed peace, Joe Biden has taken the lead in pushing for endless wars’ and how the former president had ‘taken action to defeat and eliminate dangerous leaders.’

When users tried to visit the page on Sunday night, they were met with an error message and an image of the current president saying ‘it looks like you’re as lost as Biden is’.

Trump made a conditional peace deal with the Taliban in 2020 to reduce the number of Afghan troops if the Taliban did not provide support to terrorists.

He also said he wanted a complete withdrawal by May 1 of this year.

Biden has criticized Trump’s agreement with the Taliban and said it gave him little option but to withdraw troops.

The web page praising Trump’s Taliban agreement before it was deleted

The same web address leads to a broken link mocking Joe Biden

 

Trump’s latest criticism of Biden comes after he urged his political rival to ‘resign in disgrace’ on Sunday amid the Taliban’s takeover.

‘It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan, along with the tremendous surge in COVID, the Border catastrophe, the destruction of energy independence, and our crippled economy,’ Trump said in an email.

He continued perpetuating his claim that Biden won the presidency via election fraud, concluding the email: ‘It shouldn’t be a big deal, because he wasn’t elected legitimately in the first place.’

Trump issued the statement as exclusive DailyMail.com photos showed him arriving at Trump Tower in New York City. 

The Taliban quickly began gaining control of key Afghan cities as Biden held his promise to send the troops home before the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Trump has continued to slam Biden for his handling of Afghanistan. 

Earlier Sunday, he issued another statement denouncing the Biden administration over the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

‘Tragic mess in Afghanistan, a completely open and broken Border, Crime at record levels, oil prices through the roof, inflation rising, and taken advantage of by the entire world—DO YOU MISS ME YET?’ he said in a short emailed statement on Friday. 

On Sunday, the Taliban took control of Kabul. The co-founder of the Taliban has been declared the new President of Afghanistan after the terror group announced the 20-year Western occupation ‘is over now’ and proclaimed an Islamic state during a triumphant speech from the Presidential Palace in Kabul.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who fought in the Soviet-Afghan War during the 1980s and helped ex-chief Mohammad Omar create the Taliban in 1994, has already been installed as the head of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, according to reports in the Arab world. 

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (front centre wearing a black turban), who fought in the Soviet-Afghan War during the 1980s and helped ex-chief Mohammad Omar create the Taliban in 1994, has already been installed as the head of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, according to reports in the Arab world

Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country

In a victory speech from Kabul on Sunday, Baradar said: ‘I want to congratulate the Muslim Afghan people on this huge victory, especially the citizens and residents of Kabul, and I also want to advise and demand from all the mujahideen (Taliban fighters) that we have reached a situation that is unexpected and unique, this happened with the help of God and it must not make us arrogant.

‘Before we didn’t have as much responsibility as we do today, because now we are all tested by God, day by day we will get involved in the service of our nation, in providing them with security and hope for their future.

The spokesman for the Taliban’s political office told Al-Jazeera TV that the war is over in Afghanistan and that the type of rule and the form of regime will be clear soon – adding that the Islamist group does not think foreign forces will repeat ‘their failed experience in Afghanistan again’.

Spokesman Mohammad Naeem told the Qatar-based channel: ‘We assure everyone that we will provide safety for citizens and diplomatic missions. We are ready to have a dialogue with all Afghan figures and will guarantee them the necessary protection.’

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen vowed there would be ‘no revenge’ against those who worked with the previous Afghan government, but refused to guarantee that Afghans would be allowed to flee. ‘Our policy is that no one should leave the country’ he told the BBC. ‘We need all Afghans to stay.’

Taliban fighters stormed the ancient palace on Sunday and demanded a ‘peaceful transfer of power’ as Kabul descended into chaos, with U.S. helicopters evacuating diplomats from the embassy in scenes echoing the 1975 Fall of Saigon which followed the Vietnam War. 

The Taliban has said they will soon declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace in Kabul. Pictured: militants sitting in the governor’s HQ in the city of Sharana

Taliban militants hoisted their flag as they sat around a table in a government building on Sunday

 U.S.-backed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country for Tajikistan, effectively ceding power to the Taliban and bringing the 20-year Western occupation of Afghanistan to an end, while thousands of Afghan nationals rushed to the Pakistan border in a bid to escape Islamist rule.

Mr Ghani said in a Facebook post that he escaped Afghanistan to ‘prevent a flood of bloodshed’, claiming ‘countless patriots would be martyred and the city of Kabul would be destroyed’ if he had remained.

Bagram airbase was also surrendered to the Taliban by Afghan troops, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO to build up Afghan security forces. Upon its takeover, hundreds of Taliban and Islamic State terrorists being held prisoner there were freed. 

Biden vowed that any action that puts Americans at risk ‘will be met with a swift and strong U.S. military response’. He also swiped his predecessor Trump for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, claiming he left the group ‘in the strongest position militarily since 2001’. 

In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the billions of dollars spent by the US and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces

Source: Read Full Article