Trump: US troops should exit Afghanistan much earlier

KABUL (Pajhwok): Ex-US president Donald Trump has welcomed his successor’s decision on pulling out troops from Afghanistan,

However, he took exception to President Joe Biden’s timeline for bringing home the remaining US forces from the conflict-devastated country.

While offering support for Biden’s troop withdrawal plans, Trump called for an end to America’s longest war well before the September 11 deadline that Biden on Wednesday.

CNN quoted the former president, who had set the May 1 deadline in his administration’s deal with the Taliban, as calling the US exit from Afghanistan “a wonderful thing to do”.

However, in a statement from his office, Trump suggested: “We should keep as close to that schedule as possible.”

He added: “I wish Joe Biden wouldn’t use September 11 as the date to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, for two reasons.”

First, he believed, the US could and should get out earlier. “Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long.”

The second reason, he argued, was that September 11 represented a tragic event and period for the US and should remain a day of reflection and remembrance of the victims.

PAN Monitor/mud