Former President Donald Trump criticized President Biden for advancing the deadline for withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan on 9/11, saying it “should remain a day of reflection and remembrance.”
Trump argued Sunday in a statement that the U.S. “can and should” take out the final 2,500 troops before the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“September 11 represents an event and a very sad period for our country and should continue to be a day of reflection and remembrance in honor of the great souls we lost,” he said. “Leaving Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing.”
Trump urged Biden to “stay as close as possible” to his own goal of removing troops on May 1st.
“I made early withdrawal possible by taking out much of our billions of dollars of equipment and, most importantly, reducing our military presence to less than 2,000 soldiers from the level of 16,000 that was there (also in ‘Iraq and zero troops in Syria, except for the area where WE CONSERVED OIL),” he said.
Biden had previously suggested that Trump’s May 1 retirement date would be difficult to meet for “tactical reasons.”
He announced on Wednesday his plan to withdraw all U.S. forces on Sept. 11, saying the U.S. cannot continue to pour resources into a “war forever.”
“We cannot continue the cycle of expanding or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan in the hope of creating the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, awaiting a different outcome,” he said.
“I am now the fourth president of the United States to preside over the presence of American troops in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth ”.
With publishing cables