The administration of US President Joe Biden is facing a lot of pressure and criticism over the Afghanistan withdrawal that began with the deal made under his predecessor Donald Trump. In a recent interview, the disgraced former president made a strange agreement with his successor regarding the Afghan army.
Speaking with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Trump criticized the war in Afghanistan and the pointlessness of the conflict continuing for 20 years. The former president said that the reason why the Afghan army easily surrendered to the Taliban was that they were no longer being paid to fight for their country. Trump cited that the Afghan soldiers were on the ground during the last 20 years because the US was paying them to do so.
While the US military trained the Afghan soldiers, the former president added that the Afghan military no longer cared when they were not being paid anymore. Trump’s comments were similar to comments made by Biden when he said the Afghan government had to have the will to keep fighting. Biden’s comments reiterated that the US spent trillions on the conflict, including the salaries of the Afghan soldiers.
“The fact is. They are among the highest-paid soldiers in the world. They were doing it for a paycheck. Because once we stopped, once they left, they stopped fighting…So we were sort of bribing them to fight,” said Trump.
In this week’s address to the nation, Biden acknowledged the lack of organization and the speed at which the Taliban was able to overthrow the Afghan government. However, Biden defended his decision to withdraw the US from the grounds.
Aside from the Afghanistan crisis, the US is also seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases, especially among the unvaccinated at a time where the Delta variant of the coronavirus is becoming more rampant. However, as children are set to return to school, with more children getting infected and hospitalized for COVID-19, Biden told the press Wednesday that he is now directing the Education Department to use their legal authority to challenge the Republican governors who are trying to block schools from imposing mask mandates.
Biden said that several politicians, without mentioning names, are trying to turn public health and safety measures into political disputes. Biden added that those politicians are “setting a dangerous tone.”