Biden's 'huge strategic error' in Afghanistan still 'difficult to accept' one year later: Gen. Keane
White House's 'unconditional surrender' to the Taliban has emboldened Russia, China and Iran, Keane warns
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Fox News contributor Gen. Jack Keane slammed the Biden administration on "America’s Newsroom" Monday for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and the damaging effects the U.S. absence has had in the region.
DRONES ARMED WITH EXPLOSIVES ATTACK US MILITARY BASE IN SYRIA
GEN. JACK KEANE: It's a year later, and it's still hard to fathom what we did here. The president made a huge strategic error, in my judgment, in declaring an unconditional withdrawal with a date certain in Afghanistan, which turned out to be an unconditional surrender. And now we have the Taliban in charge doing what they were doing 20-plus years ago: providing sanctuary to al Qaeda. Now, we know in those 20 years and for the sake of our troops and our intelligence service and our contractors who were there providing service. I mean, your mission was accomplished. That mission was to prevent the radicals inside of Afghanistan from attacking the United States. That did not occur. We have had no foreign terrorist attack on the United States from Afghanistan. But what a debacle this decision has created. It's an accelerant for our adversaries, as we can see. And Russia and Ukraine, China and Taiwan and the mischief that the Iranians are up to in the Middle East, to be seen. And the devastation is, as Trey pointed out, as is clear and evident, the suffering of the Afghan people, what they're leaving behind, close to 80,000. I mean, how shameful is that, that we were not committed to get everybody out for as long as it took, and we should have insisted upon that with the Taliban and put our feet to the fire and just told them straight up: listen, we're going to stay here and get our people out. You are now in Kabul, and we know where you are. If you're going to stop us from doing that, then you're going to feel the might of the United States on you as a result of it. But no, we folded out and left, and we left them behind. It's a sad situation. It's still, as I said, difficult to accept what we did.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}