Former President Donald Trump is not mincing words when it comes to the chaotic situation in Afghanistan.
Trump accused President Joe Biden of “an unforgivable dereliction of duty” regarding the messy, disastrous, and deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Americans and other foreign nationals are finding it impossible to get out of Afghanistan due to the crowds of desperate Afghans inundating Kabul’s airport. Now “multiple” U.S. service members have died in a coordinated and complex bombing attack outside the airport, according to press reports.
The Taliban this month quickly seized control of much of Afghanistan, including Kabul, amid Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops.
According to sources on the ground in Afghanistan, the chaos around Kabul’s airport appears to be growing daily.
American troops have had to fire warning shots in an attempt to disperse crowds numbering in the tens of thousands to allow westerners and American citizens to leave.
‘Humiliating’ withdrawal
Trump spoke out on the increasingly worsening situation.
“Leaving Americans behind for death is an unforgivable dereliction of duty, which will go down in infamy,” which was shared on Twitter by spokeswoman Liz Harrington.
Trump doubled down on his disapproval during an interview about Biden’s failed and “humiliating” withdrawal from Afghanistan. He continued, saying, “It’s inconceivable that anybody could be so incompetent, stupid.”
“Use any word you want to use,” Trump said. “To imagine that you take out your military before you take out your U.S. citizens, and the civilians and others that may be helped up — to even think of that, it’s not something that can be believed.”
Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw served as a Navy SEAL for a decade and was wounded in Afghanistan in 2012 before taking office.
He holds firm to the belief that President Biden must have U.S. troops retake another air base and expand the perimeter around Kabul’s airport to help with evacuations.
“Two things need to happen, and only Biden can authorize: 1. U.S. military must be allowed to operate outside Kabul airport to get American citizens. 2. Retake Bagram airfield, thus giving us more options for evacuations. Biden created this mess and needs to take decisive action,” Crenshaw tweeted.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., another veteran lawmaker, also called on Biden to act quickly and decisively.
“It’s time for President Biden to authorize the military to stop this rolling humiliation, expand the perimeter at Kabul airport, and rescue Americans trapped behind enemy lines,” Cotton tweeted.
Republicans are not the only ones criticizing the growing Afghanistan debacle.
Former Marine and Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton served four tours of duty in Iraq. He called the Biden administration’s efforts to evacuate Afghan allies and U.S. citizens out of the country “absurd.”
Moulton urged the State Department to drop the “bureaucracy” and sort out issues with visas later.
Moulton said that the department urgently needs to increase the number of consular officers to help at the Kabul airport. He said that the agency told him that the number would be increasing from 20 to 40, which he calls “absurd.”
“This is the greatest foreign policy disaster that we’ve seen in a very long time, and they’re sending 40 people to deal with it?” asked Moulton.
“I mean, that’s absurd. We’ve got 6,000 troops on the ground; we need a little bit more effort than 40 consular officers from the United States State Department.”
In contrast, other countries are conducting their evacuation efforts. Germany, France, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. are all evacuating their citizens before the August 31 deadline.
