Former President George W. Bush said he’s “deeply concerned” for “women and girls” in Afghanistan previously brutalized by Taliban forces, after the Biden administration announced its pledge to remove troops from the region by Sept. 11.
“My first reaction was ‘wow, these girls are going to have real trouble with the Taliban,'” he said in a Tuesday interview with the Today show. “A lot of gains have been made, and so I’m deeply concerned about the plight of women and girls in that country.”
“I think the administration hopes that the girls are going to be OK through diplomacy,” Bush continued. “We’ll find out. All I know is the Taliban when they had the run of the place, they were brutal. Brutal.”
Last week, President Joe Biden announced U.S. forces will begin a phased withdrawal starting May 1 that will conclude on Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Biden said the terrorist threats have “become more dispersed, metastasizing around the globe” in Syria, Iraq, Africa, and Asia, adding that it “makes little sense” to focus troops in Afghanistan when threats are present elsewhere.
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“With the terror threat now in many places, keeping thousands of troops grounded and concentrated in just one country at a cost of billions each year makes little sense to me and to our leaders,” Biden said. “We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal, and expecting a different result.”
When asked if the White House’s move was the right choice, Bush, who commenced the war during his presidency, said, “We’ll see, time will tell.”
Former President Donald Trump blasted Biden in a Sunday statement for the deadline, arguing that it wasn’t soon enough and that the Sept. 11 date ruins what should be a “day of reflection.” While in office, Trump brokered a deal with the Taliban that enshrined a full troop withdrawal date of May 1.
“I wish Joe Biden wouldn’t use September 11th as the date to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, for two reasons,” Trump said in an email statement. “First, we can and should get out earlier. Nineteen years is enough, in fact, far too much and way too long. I made early withdraw possible by already pulling much of our billions of dollars of equipment out and, more importantly, reducing our military presence to less than 2,000 troops from the 16,000 level that was there (likewise in Iraq, and zero troops in Syria except for the area where we KEPT THE OIL).”
“Secondly, September 11th represents a very sad event and period for our Country and should remain a day of reflection and remembrance honoring those great souls we lost,” he continued. “Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do. I planned to withdraw on May 1st, and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible.”
Bush has made headlines since last week after he announced the release of his new book, Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants, a hardcover featuring his own oil paintings. He also penned a recent op-ed in the Washington Post. Both of his works have called for more humane conversations on the immigration debate.
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“I do want to say to Congress, ‘Please put aside all the harsh rhetoric about immigration. Please put aside trying to score political points on either side,'” he told CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell in a taped interview released on Sunday. “I hope I can help set a tone that is more respectful about the immigrant, which may lead to reform of the system.”
His op-ed also advocated for widespread amnesty for illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.
“Americans who favor a path to citizenship for those brought here as children, known as ‘dreamers,’ are not advocating open borders,” the former president wrote.
