Following Taliban mass celebrations marking the two-year anniversary of the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) accused the Biden administration of having caved to “terrorists” and taken no accountability for the ensuing disaster.
In an exclusive statement to Breitbart News on Tuesday, Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called out the Biden administration for having “given away” Afghanistan to “terrorists” two years ago.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill with members of The American Legion on June 16, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Waltz, who served as a Special Forces commander in Afghanistan and currently serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, also noted that “not one senior administration official has been fired or resigned and there has been ZERO accountability.”
“Not only did we lose brave servicemembers in an avoidable disaster, but our country is more unsafe than before as terrorists can flow freely into Afghanistan to plan their next attack against us,” he added.
Waltz, a colonel in the National Guard as well as a former White House and Pentagon policy adviser and the first Green Beret to be elected to Congress, also posted a tweet slamming President Joe Biden’s “disastrous” withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Every single veteran who fought in Afghanistan has been sick to their stomach, myself included,” he noted. “We will never forget the many lives lost that August & every day since.”
Today marks two years since the Taliban seized Kabul and Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) August 15, 2023
Every single veteran who fought in Afghanistan has been sick to their stomach, myself included. We will never forget the many lives lost that August & every day since. pic.twitter.com/Xwdgfqz1c2
The comments follow the Taliban terrorist organization’s Tuesday marking of two years as the uncontested government of Afghanistan, the anniversary of its takeover of Kabul following Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from the country.
Taliban terrorists celebrated with events around the country, including assemblies of terrorists carrying their weapons, speeches by top jihadist scholars, and a poetry recital. The Taliban’s top spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, agreed to a profile with the Qatari outlet Al Jazeera detailing his usual workday and how the Taliban has maintained Afghan’s presidential palace. The group’s leaders used the opportunity to continue urging Afghans who opposed the Taliban to come home and help enrich the group through their labor.
In March, Waltz blasted the current administration’s “callous, cold-hearted, incompetent” withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it a “failure at leadership at the most senior levels.”
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Congressman Darrell Issa / FacebookHe also claimed he had “never been more disgusted with my own government” which he accused of having “betrayed” veterans, as he argued that neither the Taliban, al Qaeda, nor ISIS has yet to “get the memo” the war is over.
Previously, Waltz accused President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of “selling this country a fiction” that the U.S. could manage a resurgence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan “with nothing” there, following the U.S. pullout of troops.
The Biden administration has continuously come under fire for a lack of coordinated planning in the 2021 summer withdrawal of U.S. troops and the swift Taliban takeover of the country despite the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces.
In February, top House Oversight Committee Republicans launched a probe into the president’s deadly Afghanistan withdrawal, demanding all associated documents and communications from the Biden administration, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.