Former Trump National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Wednesday on CNN’s “The Lead” that the Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal was a “surrender to a terrorist organization.”
Anchor Jake Tapper asked, “I want to get your thoughts on the Biden administration’s recent after-action report memo on the withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
He asked, “What do you make of the specific argument that the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the way it was done, gave Putin a green light to invade Ukraine? Do you believe that is true?”
McMaster said, “I do believe it’s true. You know, deterrence is capability times will. And after the disaster, the horrors that we witnessed on the — really, a surrender to a terrorist organization, Jake. We got to call it what it is. It was a surrender to a terrorist organization and a disastrous retreat. I think that Vladimir Putin concluded, and so did Xi Jinping, that our will is zero. I mean, take a look at the timing of the essay that Vladimir Putin wrote in August 2020. At the same time as this disaster was unfolding in Afghanistan. Take a look at the joint statement right between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin before the Beijing Olympics. You know what the message there was? Hey, you’re over, United States. You’re over, Western democratic world. It’s our turn to establish this new era of international relations.”
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