Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is predicting that “foolish mistakes” made during the withdrawal from Afghanistan will lead to the deaths of Americans in the future.
In an op-ed published on Fox News on Thursday, Cruz wrote, “In the past month, we’ve witnessed President Joe Biden and his top officials preside over the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation.”
“Americans across the nation are horrified, and our servicemen and women are angry, disillusioned, and frustrated. Our allies are dispirited, and our enemies across the globe are emboldened, which makes the world more dangerous today for America,” he continued.
He added, “Ever since the disaster began unfolding in Afghanistan, we’ve seen the Biden administration display ideological extremism and manifest incompetence, and dodge their responsibility to give the American people answers as to why they failed so catastrophically in Afghanistan.”
Cruz went on to say that is “exactly what happened” when Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee earlier this week.
The senator also shared what he said were four “utterly indefensible” decisions made related to the withdrawal. The first was the decision to leave the Bagram Airfield.
The second he said was the “decision to leave hundreds and possibly thousands of Americans behind Taliban lines, and tens of thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. military.”
“Number three, the Biden administration left behind billions of dollars of American military equipment the Taliban will now use to threaten American lives,” Cruz added.
The Texas senator noted that Blinken said “none of that equipment ‘poses a strategic threat to us or their neighbors.'”
“That simply does not pass the laugh test when the Taliban are the new owners of potentially 64,000 machine guns, 33 Blackhawk helicopters, 16,000 pairs of night-vision goggles,” Cruz countered in the op-ed. “Unfortunately, I believe we will see American blood spilled because of these foolish mistakes.”
The fourth decision he said was based on “reports that the Biden administration gave the names of Americans and Afghans we were trying to evacuate to the Taliban, and instances of child brides and sexual abuse of children among the evacuees brought into the United States by the State Department.”
He continued:
“This is what I focused my questioning on with Secretary Blinken—whether or not either report was true. While he tried to avoid answering both of my questions directly, Secretary Blinken finally had to admit that the administration DID give the Taliban lists with names of Americans and Afghans they were trying to evacuate, and that they DID import child brides to the United States. “
Cruz said, “These are huge admissions from the Secretary of State, and they highlight just how ideologically extreme and incompetent the Biden administration is.”
Finally, he said, “Unfortunately, because of the catastrophic mistakes the Biden administration made in Afghanistan, we are much more at risk for deadly attacks by the Taliban — or al Qaeda, which Pentagon officials estimate could regroup in Afghanistan in the next year or two.”
“It’s a disgrace, and the fault lies directly with President Joe Biden and his administration,” Cruz added.
