Afghanistan. Tony Blair calls US withdrawal ‘ridiculous’

In a comment posted on his website, reported by EFE and the Associated Press this Sunday, Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister of the Labor Party, defended that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was “tragic, dangerous and unnecessary”, and should be commended. All jihadist groups around the world. Blair even called the US withdrawal from Afghanistan “ridiculous”, arguing that the UK has a “moral obligation” to remain in the country until it has finished rescuing those who want to flee.

Blair accused US President Joe Biden of making the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan based on a “stupid political slogan to end the ‘eternal wars’.” Tony Blair, 68, prime minister from 1997 to 2007, was responsible for sending British troops to Afghanistan when the United States invaded the country In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The former British prime minister argues that the departure of foreign forces is not in the interests of the West or Afghanistan, and lamented the potential setback of what had been achieved during 20 years of Allied occupation. “Why should we not abandon the people of Afghanistan – theirs and us”, Blair said in his commentary.

Blair admitted that mistakes had been made in Afghanistan, but the reaction to those mistakes “was unfortunately more mistakes.” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said today that the United Kingdom will provide “full support” to the United States if Washington decides to extend the date of withdrawal from Afghanistan to save civilians who want to flee the Taliban. According to the British government, seven Afghan civilians were killed in the last hours in the chaos outside Kabul airport, as thousands of people were trying to reach the terminal to escape the Taliban.

The hardline conservative Shiite group took power a week ago after an attack that coincided with the start of the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country, which it negotiated with the administration of Republican President Donald Trump in September 2020 in Qatar. At a rally in Alabama on Saturday, Trump sharply criticized his Democratic successor, saying Joe Biden’s handling of the US troop withdrawal constituted “the greatest humiliation in foreign policy” and “the most surprising display of the gross incompetence of an American leader.”