Romney blames both Biden and Trump for crisis in Afghanistan He also said the removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is not the same thing as ending the war. By Aubree Eweaver

29 August, 2021 | Filed under: All News,more news,Opinion,RECENT POSTS | Posted by:
 Mitt Romney walks out of the Senate Chamber in the U.S. Capitol.
“The reality is, the fact that we’re in this position is the result of bad decisions made by two administrations
,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). | Liz Lynch/Getty Images

 Sen. Mitt Romney said Sunday morning that the current situation in Afghanistan is the direct result of decisions made by both the Trump and Biden administrations.

“If you focus on what we should do right now, recognize we’re in the position we’re in right now is because of terrible decisions made by two administrations,” the Utah Republican told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

“One, the Trump administration negotiating directly with the Taliban, getting ready to invite them to Camp David, opening up a prison of 5,000 Taliban and probably ISIS-K individuals and letting them free. We don’t know whether some of them were involved in the attack that occurred. These were the decisions that led to what you’re seeing and the danger that exists at the airport. This should not have happened.”

 OUR LATEST COVERAGE OF AFGHANISTAN

Romney also cited President Joe Biden’s decision to close the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

“The reality is, the fact that we’re in this position is the result of bad decisions made by two administrations,” he said.

Romney added that the removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is not the same thing as ending the war.

“You can’t, as one party, end a war. It takes two parties to end a war. The Taliban and the radical violent jihadists in the world haven’t stopped fighting. They’re going to continue to fight us. The war is not over.”

He went on to say that while the U.S. originally went to Afghanistan two decades ago in response to 9/11, “we stayed in Afghanistan to make sure they couldn’t reconstitute to attack us again.”

Romney argued that that by leaving Afghanistan, the United States is actually less safe than if we had remained.

“The idea that we could pull out of a dangerous place where radical violent jihadists are organizing — that we could pull out of that and that is going to stop them — that’s fantasy,” he said. “They’ll continue in their effort to regroup and come after America.”

Source:politico.com