Former US president Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States was crazy to have spent billions of dollars on the war in Afghanistan.
“If they listened to me with Afghanistan, we would have been back a long time ago,” Trump said speaking at an election rally in Richmond.
He recalled that he had told Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) in a phone call not to kill US soldiers, and for 18 months no US soldier was killed in the country.
“This stupid fool (President Joe Biden) took over and we had that horrible airlift. He said he will never have anything like Vietinam. This thing blew Vietnam away with people on the airplane from 3000 feet up they started falling off the plane,” Trump said.
The former US president also said the US left behind military equipment worth $85 billion in Afghanistan, and abandoned Bagram military base.
“It is only one hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons and now China occupies Bagram,” Trump said.
In November last year, Trump said if elected, he will regain control of Bagram Airfield.
IEA’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, however, said they will not allow Afghanistan to once again become a field of competition between regional and world powers.