The clumsy US withdrawal from Afghanistan encouraged Russia and China to pursue their imperialist plans, according to former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller.
In an exclusive interview with The U.S. Sun, the former Pentagon chief said the American withdrawal from the war-torn nation exposed the US government as weak and opened the space for the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
“It was an absolute debacle, I’m still angry about it,” he explained. “It didn’t need to end that way. It shouldn’t have ended that way.
The Biden administration was accused of botching the 2021 withdrawal, which led to the Taliban quickly taking over Afghanistan.
Adding that he found it hard to imagine how the withdrawal happened the way that it did, Miller called for accountability for those behind the decision.
Biden’s decision to completely withdraw undid 20 years of work and people’s lives, according to his critics, who also say it opened up the likelihood of a humanitarian crisis and damaged US credibility.
“The debacle was completely preventable. We totally showed our belly. Who advised the president to do that? Any military person should have known that wasn’t gonna work,” he said.
“Total credit to the young people we sent over there to help with the evacuation. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the decision that we would abandon the Afghans.
Miller theorized that both Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jingping watched the withdrawal from Afghanistan and deduced they wouldn’t face much pushback if they invaded another nation.
He told The U.S. Sun: “I’m extremely confident that when they break open the Putin archives in 50 years and they break open the Chinese Communist Party archives in 50 years, when you look at their notes from their National Security Council meetings, it’s gonna be pretty clear that they saw weakness and exploited it aggressively.
Source: The Sun
