Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) Criticized President Joe Biden’s defense for his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan and warned that during an interview Monday night on CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith “will revive.
“I think at the end of the day you have two options in Afghanistan: you have a small presence that focuses on counter-terrorism and supports the Afghan military, or you face what we are facing now, a cesspool of terrorism,” said Waltz, who as a Green Beret went on several business trips to Afghanistan.
“The problem is that the terrorism that is happening in Afghanistan doesn’t stay in Afghanistan. We will see Al Qaeda 3.0, they are working closely with the Taliban and they intend to attack America again.”
Since President Joe Biden’s decision in April to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan before September 11, the Taliban have made breathtaking forays into the battlefield and captured the presidential palace in the Afghan capital of Kabul over the weekend. The Taliban now have the entirety of the 38 million people under their control.
Retired Lieutenant General Douglas Lute served in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations with a focus on Afghanistan, and said that al Qaeda terror networks were indeed destroyed in “The News with Shepard Smith”.
“Ten years ago we tried bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, the original cause of our stay in Afghanistan, the Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was decimated during our time there [U.S.] national interests were certainly served, “said Lute.
During an address to the nation on Monday, Biden also said the US had achieved its goal of “severely humiliating” al-Qaeda.
Waltz said American credibility was “badly damaged” by the withdrawal from Afghanistan and will hamper the war on terror.
“Not a single country in Afghanistan has agreed to take in American troops so that we can stay at the helm of al-Qaeda,” said Waltz. “We are blind in the region, no one will trust us, and we have no basis to track half of the world’s terrorist organizations that exist in this part of the world.”
According to Lute, it is currently “inconceivable” to imagine a world in which the US is forced to return to Afghanistan.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
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