In rare public comments, former President George W. Bush said he believes the upcoming withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is a mistake.
Bush, in his first year in office in 2001, launched the war in Afghanistan — the United States’ longest war by far — following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
President Joe Biden announced last week that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will be complete by Aug. 31, slightly ahead of the Sept. 11 goal he set earlier this year, marking the final chapter of America’s drawdown from the two decade-long conflict.
“The United States did what we wanted to do in Afghanistan: get the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11,” Biden said last week, adding: “The status quo was not an option. Staying would have made us choose taking casualties — American men and women.”
“After 20 years — a trillion dollars spent training and equipping hundreds of thousands of Afghan National Security and Defense Forces, 2,448 Americans killed, 20,722 more wounded, and untold thousands coming home with unseen trauma to their mental health — I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome,” Biden said.
“Afghan leaders have to come together and drive toward a future that the Afghan people want and they deserve,” Biden said, noting that the U.S. would turn to a diplomatic effort in Afghanistan to reach “a peace agreement that will end this senseless violence.”
When asked by German news outlet Deutsche Welle if he believes the withdrawal is a mistake, the 43rd president said, “You know, I think it is.”
“I think the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad and sad,” Bush added, expressing concern for Afghan allies who worked alongside U.S. and NATO forces — including interpreters — and their families, as well as Afghan women and girls, who he believed “are going to suffer unspeakable harm” as a result of the withdrawal.
“I think about all the interpreters and people that helped not only US troops, but NATO troops and they’re just, it seems like they’re just gonna be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people, and it breaks my heart.”
On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced Operation Allies Refuge “to support relocation flights for interested and eligible Afghan nationals and their families who have supported the United States,” according to a senior administration official.
“I’m sad,” Bush added. “Laura and I spent a lot of time with Afghan women. And they’re scared.”
A number of Republicans have criticized the United States’ withdrawal in recent days, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., calling it a “global embarrassment.”
“The dangers facing the Afghan people, especially, especially women and girls, are heartbreaking,” McConnell said in a floor speech last week. “The humanitarian crisis may well be historic.”
“But this is also an awful, bungled mess from the perspective of our own national security,” the Kentucky Republican continued. “Ending our presence in Afghanistan will not end the terrorists’ war against us. Sadly, the opposite is likely to be true. This self-inflicted wound could very well make this struggle even more difficult and even more dangerous.”
As the Taliban surge through northern Afghanistan — a traditional stronghold of U.S.-allied warlords and an area dominated by the country’s ethnic minorities — thousands of families are fleeing their homes, fearful of living under the insurgents’ rule.
In the last 15 days, Taliban advances have driven more than 5,600 families from their homes, most of them in the northern reaches of the country, according to the government’s Refugee and Repatriations Ministry.
In areas they control, the Taliban have imposed their own fees and taxes. Ashor Ali, a truck driver, told The Associated Press he pays the Taliban a 12,000 Afghani ($147) toll for every load of coal he brings from a Taliban-controlled part of neighboring Samangan province to Mazar-e-Sharif. That amounts to more than half of what he makes on each haul.
The Taliban are attending international conferences, even sending their ex-ministers on missions to Afghanistan from Qatar, where they have a political office, to assure Afghans they have nothing to fear from them, especially minorities. The group still espouses Islamic rule but says its methods and tenets are less severe.
But if it’s a gentler face they are seeking to portray, fleeing residents say it seems many Taliban commanders in the field either haven’t gotten the message or aren’t listening.
A February 2020 agreement the Taliban signed with the United States reportedly prevents the insurgents from capturing provincial capitals.
Yet two — Kandahar in the south and Badghis in the north — are under siege. In the capital of Kabul, where many fear an eventual Taliban assault, a rocket defense system has been installed, the Ministry of Interior said over the weekend. The statement offered no detail about its origin or cost.
The U.S., Russia, China and even Afghanistan’s neighbor Pakistan, where the Taliban leadership council is headquartered, have all warned the Taliban against trying for a military victory, warning they will be international pariahs. Taliban leaders have vowed they are not doing so, even as they boast of their gains in recent meetings in Iran and in Russia,
The Taliban blame the Afghan government for foiling efforts to jumpstart stalled talks that would elevate discussions to include leaders on both sides of the conflict.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
