The botched withdrawal of U.S. troops is the keystone around which Donald Trump is building his foreign policy plans.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, the former president set out his thinking and explained why the episode, in which 13 American personnel were killed and the world watched in horror as thousands of terrified Afghans raced after departing planes, marked a turning point in U.S. standing in the world.
He outlined his thoughts after putting the issue at the center of a national security speech in Asheboro, North Carolina, where he promised tough action on anyone involved in the withdrawal.
‘I will ask for the resignations of every single senior military official who touched the Afghanistan disaster,’ he announced on stage.
‘I want their resignations immediately.’
Donald Trump is promising tough action on officials involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal
Trump has been on a policy tour of battleground states while Democrats hold their convention in Chicago.
On Monday it was the economy in Pennsylvania; Tuesday was law and order in Michigan; and Wednesday saw him join forces with his running mate J.D. Vance to set out their national security aims.
Trump got into the nitty gritty of the issue with DailyMail.om after the speech, saying it was unforgiveable that officials and officers had escaped accountability.
He reserved particular frustration with Gen. Mark Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, who as commander of U.S. Central Command had overall responsibility for the region. Both have since retired.
And he identified the August 2021 withdrawal and Taliban takeover as a moment of U.S. humiliation and the beginning of a new era of global instability.
‘We were respected,’ he said in a hangar at the North Carolina Aviation Museum. ‘We were going to get out with dignity and pride.
‘And these people took the soldiers out first, so everybody’s left back there.
‘It was total bedlam. It was a terrible thing.
‘When Putin saw that, he said: ‘This is a good time to go into Ukraine. That would have never happened with me.’
The Taliban overran the capital Kabul in August 2021, triggering chaotic scenes as Afghans pleaded for help to escape. In this iconic image, a man hands an infant to a US Marine
Taliban fighters, some wearing face masks, are seen celebrating and raising their guns in the air at the airport after taking control
The XVIII Airborne Corps released an image Monday of the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan ¿ Major General Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division
Trump answered questions about everything from his relationship with Queen Elizabeth II, the Democratic National Convention to what it was like to appear behind bulletproof glass on Wednesday.
But it was Afghanistan and American standing in the world that saw him become most animated.
It was his administration that laid the groundwork for the decision made by President Joe Biden to pull out.
Trump and his officials made a deal with the Taliban in February 2020 to end the 20-year war. The U.S. agreed to rapidly close air bases and reduce the number of troops before a final withdrawal in May 2021 of all NATO forces.
In return the Taliban agreed to halt attacks on U.S. forces and ensure that terrorist groups could not use Afghan soil.
Then, once in power, Biden promised to withdraw the last 2,500 U.S. forces by the symbolically potent date of Sept. 11.
Trump said the episode was instrumental in convincing Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. would not get in the way of his invasion of Ukraine
Tragedy struck when a suicide bomber detonated his deadly payload at the airport on August 26. The worst of the casualties were packed into this area beneath the breeze-block sniper tower at the top of this picture, released on by the Pentagon
The Americans killed in the blast were: (left to right, starting with top row) Cpl. Daegan W. Page – Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo – Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover – Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza – Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum – Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui – Cpl. Hunter Lopez – Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz – Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss – Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez – Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak – Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola – Sgt. Nicole L. Gee
The result was the helter-skelter advance of Taliban fighters. They upped their attacks on the Afghan government, which could no longer rely on omnipotent American airpower or special forces for help.
Taliban troops took over the capital Kabul on August 14, 2021, before American troops had left. Foreign civilians, who believed the Kabul government would survive on its own, suddenly needed rescuing.
Trump said he blamed the generals in charge for what came next: A chaotic scramble and a suicide attack on Kabul’s international airport that killed 13 Americans and dozens of Afghans.
‘They did a terrible job. They were lousy generals,’ he said.
He described Milley, who was the top military adviser to both Trump and Biden, as a ‘television general.’
‘Milley was pretty incompetent. He was a very radical left liberal guy,’ he said, adding that he would have been better suited to advising a fellow leftist like Kamala Harris.
He said they made a crucial strategic decision in abandoning Bagram air base, the main hub for American forces, early in the withdrawal. That meant relying on Hamid Karzai International Airport, close to the center of Kabul.
The issue is complicated. Some military experts say using Bagram for the withdrawal would have meant sending in thousands of extra troops to secure it and its access route.
President Joe Biden cast the withdrawal as a success. But he is seen here at Dover Air Force Base as the 13 bodies were flown home
Trump reserved particular anger for the generals in charge: Gen. Mark Milley (left), who was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of CentCom
‘I would have never given up Bagram, because Bagram is one hour away from where, as you know, China makes its nuclear weapons,’ said Trump.
‘We should have had a massive air base. We spent billions of dollars many years ago building it among the most powerful runways, biggest runways in the world in terms of weight two, in terms of holding massive cargo, and all built, all done one hour from China.’
Today it is under Taliban control. However, China is one of the few countries to recognize the Taliban regime, triggering frequent fears that it is seeking access to Bagram or could already be using it.
The worst moment in the withdrawal came on August 26, when an ISIS-K suicide bomber blew himself up at the airport. Hundreds were killed, including 13 Americans, or wounded as shrapnel tore through crowds of desperate people.
‘We lost 13 great soldiers, and 45 were absolutely obliterated with the legs and the arms and the face,’ said Trump of the attack on the airport.
‘They have to live that way. Now, 45 soldiers, and this should have never happened.’
Trump spoke to DailyMail.com after a rally at the North Carolina Aviation Museum
And he used the occasion to remind voters that Harris was part of the fateful withdrawal decision. ‘She was the last person in the room with Biden when the two of them decided to pull out of Afghanistan,’ he told a crowd of thousands
But he said the biggest mistake was failing to prepare properly for the consequences of the withdrawal.
‘It’s so incompetent,’ he said. ‘But most importantly, they took the military out first. A child would know you don’t take the military out.’
His words illustrate the foreign policy strands that run through his thinking and his support base. There is the America First tendency, which wants to pull back U.S. commitments around the world to focus on domestic priorities, but it is complicated by Trump’s ‘peace through strength’ echo of a Reaganite idea of Washington leadership around the globe.
For the moment, as Trump’s speech made clear, it is a key campaign issue. The withdrawal cast a long shadow over Biden’s presidency. Pollsters identify it as the moment his ratings started their turn downwards.
And for Trump it is another policy decision that can hurt Kamala Harris.
‘This calamity is on comrade Kamala Harris’ shoulders,’ he told the excitable rally crowd.
‘She was the last person in the room with Biden when the two of them decided to pull out of Afghanistan.’
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