US3 min(s) read
Published 13:25 22 Aug 2021 GMT
Donald Trump hit out at Joe Biden in a scathing verbal attack during a rally appearance on Saturday, slamming the President's recent Afghanistan withdrawal.
Speaking at a rally in Cullman, Alabama, the former president claimed that Biden had created "the greatest foreign policy humiliation in the history of the United States of America" following the USA's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On August 15, the Taliban took political control of Afghanistan after entering the presidential palace in Kabul and declaring the war "over" - resulting in President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country, CNBC reports.
As well as saying that Biden should "resign in disgrace", Trump said on Saturday that Biden has allowed "weakness in the White House".
Continuing to rip into Biden, Trump said that, "Vietnam looks like a Masterclass in strategy compared to Joe Biden’s catastrophe."
Per the New York Post, Trump added: "This will go down as one of the great military defeats of all time and it did not have to happen that way. This was not a withdrawal, this was a total surrender, for no reason."
Trump continued: "[Biden] surrendered our airbase, he surrendered our weapons, he surrendered our embassy."
The 75-year-old was speaking at the rally in support of Rep. Mo Brooks, who is running for a seat in Senate.
His blistering attack on Biden continued, as Trump took aim at the reported arms and equipment left in Afghanistan that has been "seized" by the Taliban.
"It didn’t have to happen. All [Biden] had to do was leave the soldiers until everyone was out, our citizens, the weapons, and then you bomb the hell out of the bases [...] and you say 'bye bye,'" Trump said.
He continued: "Very soon we’re going to have September 11 and we’re going to have — because of Biden — the Taliban flag flying over the embassy."
Trump then claimed that if he was in office, "the Taliban would not have ever dreamt of capturing our airfield or parading around with our American weapons."
Despite his critics, Biden has stood by his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Earlier this week, Biden said from the White House that he had "learned the hard way that there was never a good way to withdraw our forces."
The President then spoke about Afghanistan's political leadership, saying: "American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.
"We spent over a trillion dollars. We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000 strong — incredibly well equipped — a force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO allies.
"We gave them every tool they could need. We paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force — something the Taliban doesn’t have. Taliban does not have an air force. We provided close air support.
"We gave them every chance to determine their own future. What we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future."
"I will not repeat the mistakes we've made in the past," he added.
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