Like many of his GOP congressional colleagues, Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) is critical of the Biden administration’s precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly two decades of occupation.
As Americans and those aligned with the United States throughout our military efforts in the Central Asian nation were attempting to evacuate Afghanistan at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, a suicide bomber claimed the lives of 13 U.S. military personnel and countless civilians earlier in the week.
That attack has amplified those criticisms and has called into question the Biden administration’s decisions on Afghanistan, including an August 31 deadline to complete the evacuation of the wartorn nation.
During an interview with Mobile, AL radio’s FM Talk 106.5, Moore argued President Joe Biden should revise the deadline.
“He said his military experts said we needed to walk away from Baghram, but then you hear from the other side he was only going to give them 600 soldiers to hold,” Moore said. “He’s trying to place blame. He needs to give these leaders the capability to do the job they can do. And the deadline — the deadline is the day the last American citizens are out. That’s your deadline. You get everybody out and our allies out. Then you say we’re leaving now. Until then, don’t harm a hair on the head of anybody.”
“And I’m curious to see how many Taliban were killed in the explosion [Thursday],” he continued. “Did they know ISIS was coming in and there were suicide bombers in the crowd? Did they pull their people back and allow what happened to happen? And once we know that answer, we’ll know truly — which, I don’t trust the Taliban any further than I can throw them. But for sure, these fighters, these militia-type jihadists — they move from one group to the other. It’s really difficult for me to imagine we’re handing over the list of who are trusted allies of Americans to our enemy. You don’t leave them behind. Jeff, the way you fix is you correct course. You own up to your mistakes. You go in there, and you put your foot down, and you take the American people out, and you get them out alive, and you get our allies out.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor