Afghan President Seeks ‘Clarification’ After Trump War Comments

Trump seeks credit for not seeking to exterminate one third of Afghanistan's population for no reason whatsover

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Tuesday the US should clarify remarks President Donald Trump made about Afghanistan, including a claim he could easily win the war but didn’t “want to kill 10 million people”.

The US leader made several surprising statements Monday alongside Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House, including that he had plans for a quick end to the Afghan conflict, but which would wipe the country “off the face of the Earth”.

Afghanistan “would be gone. It would be over in literally, in 10 days,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t want to go that route” and that he didn’t want to kill millions.

His comments sparked upset and outrage in Afghanistan [really??], where the war-weary and traumatised population is already worried about a precipitous pull-out of US forces and whether that means a return to Taliban rule and a spiralling civil war.

“The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls for clarification on the US president’s statements expressed at a meeting with the Pakistan prime minister, via diplomatic means and channels,” Ghani’s office said in a statement.

Trump also said Pakistan would help the US “extricate” itself from Afghanistan, adding there was “tremendous potential” in the relationship between Washington and Islamabad.

Afghanistan has long blamed Pakistan for fuelling the Afghan conflict and for supporting the Taliban, and Ghani is furious about being continually sidelined by the US in ongoing peace talks with the Taliban.

Pakistan was the Taliban’s chief sponsor when it took power in neighbouring Afghanistan during the 1990s.

Its influence over the group, which has waged an insurgency since it was ousted from power by US-led forces in 2001, is seen as key in facilitating a political settlement with Ghani’s government.

“While the Afghan government supports the US efforts for ensuring peace in Afghanistan, the government underscores that foreign heads of state cannot determine Afghanistan’s fate in absence of the Afghan leadership,” Ghani’s office said.

Everyday Afghans took to social media to vent after Trump’s comments.

“I feel shocked, threatened and humiliated. We trusted Americans to help us in the war against terror, and now President Trump is threatening us with genocide,” Facebook user Mohd Farhad wrote.

Trump’s peace envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, meanwhile arrived in Kabul on Tuesday ahead of what will be the eighth round of direct talks he’s held with the Taliban.

Those discussions are expected to get underway in Doha in the coming days, with Ghani and his administration once again locked out.

Source: AFP

9 Comments
  1. S-400 says

    Trump is on record threating North Korea with “fire and fury”.

    He can recently threatened Iran with ” obliteration”

    And now he casually speaks about killing or not wanting to kill ” 10 million” Afghans.

    All this is offensive and departs from basic diplomatic decency, but should we be surprised?

    Didnt we see this coming?

    Because after all, isnt this what you get when a 2nd rate realityTV host, braggart and loud mouth buffon is elevated to the highest office in the land.

  2. Nick Rhynes says

    KJU nailed it with ‘dotard’. That’s tRump to a tee, dotard.

  3. Melville Pouwels says

    frumpy is definitley a candidate for netenyahu’s claim to the most ‘obtuse societal leech’
    on planet earth, since…king leopold ??

  4. stevek9 says

    Ghani has nothing to be ‘furious’ about. If Afghanistan wants the Taliban, then they should have the Taliban. The US cannot prop up a government that can’t exist without its support, forever. It’s been almost 20 years. What is the US supposed to do? … stay for 100 years? The US toppled the Taliban. That creates responsibility, but not in perpetuity. It’s clear that the population, at least enough of it, want the Taliban. Since this has NO importance to the US whatever, why should the US block them from taking power?

    1. Richard Hollembeak says

      If we left , the Taliban would do away with the boy dancers and the poppy fields again ,the pedophiles in DC and Afghanistan would not be enjoying their vices .

  5. John C Carleton says

    Well, this is an old gezzer who bankrupted several high end companies, had to be bailed out by the Rats, who now own his rather large and saggy rear.
    This financial genius, paid $30,000 US for a romp in the hay with an over the hill, worn out “pornstar”, when a fresh working girl can be had on the corner of most streets for twenty bucks or so!

    He could probably use some ego soothing.
    I mean he says I had the US NAVY shoot down an Iranian drone!

    Iran, sorry, we don’t seem to be missing one, but here is the footage from the flyover of the drone continuing on past when ya say ya shot it down!

    The Trickster Trumpster is like Rodney Dangerfield, he just can’t get no respect!

  6. Undecider says

    Trump was speaking in the technical sense. Everyone should know that.

    1. Séamus Ó Néill says

      He’s supposed to be the leader of a civilised nation, but, America and civilised together, is a definite oxymoron

  7. CHUCKMAN says

    Clarification?

    From a genuine madman who regularly makes all kinds of outrageous statements?

    That’s expecting a miracle.

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