Former us president George W. Bush on Wednesday criticized the withdrawal of Nato troops from Afghanistan and said civilians were being left to be “slaughtered” by the Taliban.
“Laura (Bush) and that I spent tons of your time with Afghan women, and they are scared. and that I believe all the interpreters and other people that helped not only US troops but Nato troops, and it looks like they’re just getting to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people. And it breaks my heart,” Bush told German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.
Asked whether he thought the withdrawal was an error, Bush replied: “Yes, I feel it’s .”
The former Republican president, who sent troops to Afghanistan in autumn 2001 after the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre, said he believed German Chancellor Angela Merkel “feels an equivalent way”.
Bush said Merkel, who is about to retire from politics later this year after 16 years in power, had brought “class and dignity to a really important position and made very hard decisions”.
US and Nato forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in early May and are thanks to completely pull out by 9/11, some 20 years after they arrived within the war-torn country.
Most of the two,500 US and seven,500 Nato troops who were in Afghanistan when US President Joe Biden detailed the ultimate withdrawal in April have now gone, leaving Afghan troops to fight an emboldened Taliban seemingly bent on a military victory.
The country is facing a crisis because the insurgents snaffle territory across the countryside, stretching government forces and resulting in a fresh wave of internally displaced families, complicated by a renewed outbreak of Covid-19.
The United Nations said on Sunday the rising conflict is causing “more suffering” across the violence-wracked country because it involved continuous aid.
Biden has insisted, however, that it’s time for US involvement within the war to finish and for Afghans to chart their own future.
