Rep. Louie Gohmert tells Newsmax that President Barack Obama dishonors the American troops killed in Afghanistan by releasing the Taliban “murderers of our soldiers” and begging them to negotiate with us.
The Texas Republican also says Obama is seeking negotiations to placate the left, and America will have to “refight this war” if the administration continues on its present course.
Gohmert, who was elected in 2004, is vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee. He recently traveled with three House colleagues to Berlin to meet with leaders of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance — allies he says the Obama administration is betraying.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Gohmert discusses the background of that meeting with the Northern Alliance.
Story continues below the video.
“They were our allies. They still want to be our allies. We’re talking about the Northern Alliance. Their leaders rallied thousands and thousands of Afghans. We imbedded less than 1,500 Americans. We provided air support and the technology, and these guys were relentless in pursuing the Taliban in late 2001 and early 2002, and we defeated the Taliban.
“But we have now allowed [Afghanistan] a constitution that creates a centralized government in a very tribal country. It creates a conduit for nothing but corruption.
“You have a president who gets to appoint the regional government, the mayors, the police chiefs, even most of the top-level teachers. He’s got powers of the purse. He has incredible control, and that has led to tremendous corruption.
“After the Northern Alliance defeated the Taliban, we told them we’ll make sure you’re safe. Meanwhile, this administration has been negotiating openly with the Taliban and has already released some of the Taliban murderers of our troops.”
The United States has “a commander in chief who dishonors our dead soldiers by allowing murderers of our soldiers to be released and then promising those murders we’ll buy them a princely office in Qatar and we will beg them to negotiate with us,” Gohmert says.
“We have already approved the release of over 800 Taliban and then sat by and seen 1,000 Taliban escape from one detention facility. Our Americans [soldiers] and our allies have seen a couple of thousand Taliban who they thought they captured and they thought were put away come back and fight again.
“In fact some, of the Northern Alliance leaders have been demonized by this administration, calling them war criminals and warlords. These were our allies, our friends, and we have turned on them. We basically have shut them out. They wanted to talk to somebody from the U.S. government. Nobody would meet with them. I said sure, let’s go meet.”
Gohmert is critical of the Obama administration’s efforts to reach a deal with the Taliban.
“I think the only deal that should be reached with the Taliban is when they are actually in defeat,” he tells Newsmax.
“Instead, we allowed the release of one of the Taliban leaders for medical reasons and he’s back leading. He was on Afghan television last week saying the United States has been defeated, and now we’re begging the Taliban to come negotiate. That’s how it looks to them.
“We’re going to have to refight this war if this administration goes through with what they’re planning.
“Here we are befriending the Taliban that hate us and want to destroy us and our way of life. Our allies around the world are saying it’s dangerous to be an ally of the United States.”
Gohmert also says Obama is seeking a peace deal with the Taliban to provide political cover for the administration’s accelerated withdrawal of U.S. forces.
“He thinks that will make him look good with the far left. The trouble is he could look really good with the far left and the far right if he would stand by those who fought the Taliban, not leave them to be killed, and avoid the corruption by decentralizing the power in Afghanistan.
“In the meantime, he has thrown our allies under the bus and he means for them to stay there. His administration did all they could to keep us from meeting with our former allies. He’s doing this to placate his left in an election year, but it’s bad for the country and it ought to be bad for him politically, too.”
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