‘We left billions of {dollars} in Afghanistan’: Donald Trump calls for return of US army gear after 20-year warfare – The Instances of India
US President Donald Trump has known as for the return of billions of {dollars}’ price of army tools left behind in Afghanistan after the 2021 US withdrawal. He additionally pressed for the elimination of army leaders concerned in what he described as a disastrous exit.
“We left billions, tens of billions of {dollars}’ price of apparatus behind. Model new vans,” Trump mentioned throughout his first Cupboard assembly on Wednesday. “You see them show it yearly, on their little roadways. That’s all top-of-the-line stuff. I believe we must always get a number of that tools again.”
The Taliban seized a lot of the greater than $7 billion price of US army tools left in Afghanistan, in keeping with a 2022 division of defence report. Whereas US troops eliminated or destroyed main belongings through the drawdown, plane, floor autos, and different weapons had been deserted. The Pentagon has said that a lot of the tools would possible change into inoperable with out US upkeep.
Trump’s remarks got here as he responded to questions on whether or not he would hearth army officers accountable for the withdrawal. Whereas he mentioned he wouldn’t dictate choices to defence secretary Pete Hegseth, he was clear in his stance. “I’m not going to inform this man what to do, however I’ll say that if I had his place, I’d hearth each single certainly one of them, Pete,” he mentioned.
Hegseth confirmed that beneath his management, the division of defence is conducting a radical evaluation of the Afghanistan withdrawal and plans to carry people accountable. “We’re taking a really totally different view, clearly, than the earlier administration,” Hegseth mentioned, pointing to Trump’s nomination of retired Air Drive lieutenant common John Dan “Razin” Caine as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees. “And there will likely be full accountability.”
Trump expects the Pentagon’s evaluation to result in the elimination of most generals concerned within the withdrawal, which noticed Americans and US allies left behind, billions of {dollars} in army tools deserted, and 13 US service members killed in a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate outdoors Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport.
“I don’t see an enormous promotion in that group,” Trump mentioned of the officers concerned. “I believe they’re going to be largely gone. That was a horrible show.”
“The result in Afghanistan was the results of many choices from a few years of warfare,” Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees, retired military common Mark Milley testified. “Like several advanced phenomena, there was no single causal issue that decided the result.”
US Central Command, which oversees army operations within the Center East, was accountable for the withdrawal.
Trump additionally known as on the Taliban to return US army tools, claiming that Afghanistan has change into “one of many largest sellers of army tools on the earth,” taking advantage of deserted US weapons, armour, and equipment.
“I believe they need to give our tools again. And I instructed Pete to review that,” Trump mentioned.
