(Staff article from the REUTERS on August 21,2021.)
Trump, a Republican who has dangled the possibility
of running again for president in 2024, has repeatedly blamed Biden, a
Democrat, for Afghanistan's fall to the Islamist militant Taliban, even though
the U.S. withdrawal that triggered the collapse was negotiated by his own
administration.
"Biden’s botched exit from Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation’s leader, perhaps at any time," Trump said at a boisterous rally packed with his supporters near Cullman, Alabama.
Taliban leaders
are trying to hammer out a new government after their forces swept across the
country as U.S.-led forces pulled out after two decades, with the
Western-backed government and military crumbling.
For his part,
Biden has criticized the Afghan military for refusing to fight, denounced the
now-ousted Afghan government and declared he inherited a bad withdrawal
agreement from Trump. At the rally, Trump blamed the situation on Biden not
having followed the plan his administration came up with and bemoaned U.S.
personnel and equipment being left behind as troops withdrew.
"This is
not a withdrawal. This was a total a surrender," he said. Trump said the
Taliban, with whom he had negotiated, respected him. He suggested 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."
