In the aftermath of Thursday’s terrorist attacks in Kabul, former Trump administration national security adviser H.R. McMaster said it was time for President Joe Biden to ''reverse course'' on removing U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
In an interview with Yahoo! News, McMaster predicted, ''What we saw today is just the beginning,'' he said of the deadly attacks in Kabul that have so far claimed the lives of 12 U.S. servicemen. ''We are going to see horrible image after horrible image. ... We’re going to confront the steady drumbeat of horrors inflicted on the Afghan people.''
McMaster has previously blasted the Biden administration for abandoning the Afghan people and forces the U.S. helped train to fightfor their country against the Taliban insurgency.
He told Newsmax’s Eric Bolling, ''This is a collapse that we helped bring on, sadly, by the way that we conducted our withdrawal and the way that we forced Afghan government to make concession after concession on our way out, releasing 5,000 of the most heinous prisoners [that] you can imagine — and then also just professing that we're not going to support them in any way."
National Security Adviser to the Trump Administration in 2017-2018, McMaster said, ''We have to redouble counterterrorism efforts broadly across the region, with Central Asian states,'' he said, ''in the areas of intelligence sharing and going after these groups quite aggressively — not just with military but with law enforcement capabilities, with financial actions — to isolate these groups from sources of support. We have to make clear that we will not tolerate American leaders advocating for recognition of the Taliban.''
Of the current situation in Afghanistan, McMaster told Yahoo.com that he would advise President Biden to stop the troop withdrawl, extend the perimeter around the airport and create safe areas when Afghan civilians can be protected from the Taliban.
McMaster added that President Joe Biden's mistake is "there are no short-term solutions to long-term problems."
"This was not a foregone conclusion that Afghanistan would collapse, and he (Biden) placed the blame on Afghan government leaders and Afghan security forces," McMaster said.
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