Tucker Carlson credits Biden with ending ‘permanent war’ in Afghanistan

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Although Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been a staunch critic of President Joe Biden – and continues to be – the controversial TV personality gave the Commander-in-Chief credit for ending a “Permanent war” in Afghanistan.

Biden has been the subject of much criticism for the chaotic withdrawal of US forces, allies and Afghan refugees from Afghanistan which came as the Taliban regained control of the country two weeks before the August 31 deadline set by the president to officially end the war. While Carlson criticized the way Biden handled the pullout, he defended the decision to pull troops out of the country.

The Fox News host discussed the situation in Afghanistan on his Friday night show. He commented on leaked excerpts from a July 23 call between Biden and then Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which Reuters first reported on Tuesday. During this conversation, Biden told Ghani that it was “necessary to project a different picture” of the perception that the situation was rapidly deteriorating for the US-backed Afghan government.

“We know this conversation took place, because the Pentagon and / or the State Department leaked it to Reuters. Now why would they do that? Because whatever Biden’s faults were, he pulled it out. American troops in Afghanistan, and they hate it, ”he added. Carlson said Friday.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson credited President Joe Biden on his Friday show for ending the “permanent war” in Afghanistan. In this photo, Carlson speaks at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Feszt on August 7 in Esztergom, Hungary. Janos Kummer / Getty Images

“So they leaked an audio cassette of the president speaking to another head of state,” he said. The Fox News host continued, saying the Pentagon and / or the State Department leaked the call “to avenge him [Biden] because he broke the rules. “

“He stopped the war permanently. He did it in an inept manner, but he did it,” Carlson said, expressing support for the decision.

The Fox News host criticized U.S. military leaders, saying they had been misleading the public for decades. “Lying to the rest of us about what is really going on with our troops with our money on our behalf in a foreign country has been the philosophy of that nation’s military establishment for the past 20 years,” Carlson said. , claiming it was the same. for senior officials of the Biden administration.

It is not publicly known who leaked the snippets of the appeal or how Reuters obtained them. Reuters only reported that the excerpts it published came from a transcript and recording that its reporters reviewed.

“As you know, and I don’t need to tell you, the perception in the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of fighting the Taliban. “Biden told Ghani at the July 23 meeting. call. “And there is a need, whether it’s true or not, there is a need to project a different image.”

Critics have argued that the snippets demonstrate that Biden was more aware of the weakness of the Afghan government than he admitted in public. They said the president was trying to tell a false story about the situation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the president but declined to discuss details of the conversation at a press conference on Wednesday.

“What the president has conveyed publicly and certainly also privately on several occasions to the Afghan leadership is that it is important that the Afghan leadership do just that: lead, show the country that they are ready to continue the fight. “said Psaki.

Newsweek contacted the White House for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

The Afghan war was the longest in US history, lasting almost 20 years. It began in October 2001 and officially ended last month, with the total withdrawal of US troops. The war cost the United States at least $ 2.3 trillion, according to Brown University’s Cost of War project.

Former President Donald Trump’s administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020. The deal would have withdrawn all US troops by May 2021. Biden extended the deadline until September 11 after his entry in office, then postponed it to August 31. But the Taliban regained near total control of Afghanistan on August 15.

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