Botched, embarrassing and gross incompetence — these are the insults former President Donald Trump hurled three years after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan claimed the lives of 13 American service members.
Trump took to Truth Social early Monday morning to rail against President Joe Biden and his administration's withdrawal from the nation invaded by the U.S. in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
"This is the third anniversary of the BOTCHED Afghanistan withdrawal, the most EMBARRASSING moment in the history of our Country," Trump wrote. "Gross Incompetence."
This message arrived on the third anniversary of the Kabul airport attack on Aug. 26, 2021, when ISIS suicide bomber Abdul Rahman al-Logari killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghan civilians at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate, Defense Department reports show.
Trump lambasted the loss of "BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND," echoing a claim that has been fact-checked as false.
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The Taliban, which reclaimed power after the Afghanistan government collapsed, was able to secure military equipment, but its worth remains unknown and much was considered obsolete, the Associated Press wrote in a Trump fact check from 2021.
"You don’t take our soldiers out first, you take them out LAST, when all else is successfully done," Trump wrote. "Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became, and is, a laughing stock all over the World."
Generals who oversaw operations sourced problems with the "disastrous" withdrawal to decisions made by both administrations, reports show.
Mark Milley, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, testified to Congress in March that Trump's Doha departure agreement with the Taliban "pulled the rug out, morale-wise" of the Afghan government as well as security forces.
Trump concluded his message by accusing what he calls the "fake news media" of failing to accurately report on the Biden administration, which he argued has been the worst in the nation's history.
The former president and Republican nominee's comments come as he faces mounting criticism for rhetoric directed at the military.
Earlier this month, Trump said he would rather receive the civilian Presidential Medal of Freedom than the highest military award, the Medal of Honor.
"People who get the Congressional Medal of Honor, which I've given to many, are often horribly wounded or dead," Trump said. "They're often dead."
