Ex-US President Donald Trump even brings a renewed invasion of Afghanistan into play.
His numbers on the cost of US weapons are in doubt.
Palm Beach - When the enemy takes the stage, Donald Trump can no longer contain himself.
The Taliban celebrate with the empty coffins of supposed US soldiers, drive bumper cars or pose with the weapons of the withdrawn - because of the latter, the ex-US president has now posted a blog entry with a lot of foam at the mouth.
He demands the return.
Not from local staff in Afghanistan, but from US weapons.
“Bomb it until it doesn't work anymore!” (Freely translated into German) wrote the 75-year-old on August 30th on his official website.
Trump attacks Biden over Afghanistan mission: "We look like idiots"
The Islamists should return the US weapons "immediately", continues Trump in the 150-word short entry, namely "every penny of the total of 85 billion US dollars spent on them."
If not, one should march into the country, or - as mentioned - use bombs.
No one had ever thought such a "stupid" mission possible, Trump announced against his successor in office, Joe Biden.
"We look like idiots worldwide, we are weak, we are pathetic, we are led by people who have no idea what they are doing," the right-wing populist had previously said on US TV channel Fox News.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said last week that the goal was to fly out the equipment as well as the troops.
If that is not possible and military equipment has to be destroyed or otherwise "disposed of", then it will be done.
The aim of such a step would be to prevent weapons and other material from being left to the Taliban.
The social media are currently full of pictures that apparently show Taliban supporters posing with said US weapons.
Telegraph
reporter Will Brown tweeted an infographic about the abandoned US weapons a few days ago:
A mind-blowing graphic in today's Times on what $ 85bn worth of lost equipment means in practice for the Taliban: pic.twitter.com/GDcuNQbb6P
- Will Brown (@_Will_Brown) August 29, 2021
Trump's statement on US weapons in Afghanistan attracts attention in US media
Washington Post
observers
see Trump's announcement as a "change in tone" that could be related to his possible candidacy for the 2024 US presidential election.
His entry is to be interpreted as a will to invade the country again (unlike Biden), tweeted author Dave Weigel:
I don't think every Trump statement is newsworthy, but given that he's probably running in 2024 it's newsworthy that his Afghanistan position has evolved from "I will end the war, unlike Biden" to "I will re-invade, unlike Biden."
https://t.co/hSTEoYTWiA
- Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 30, 2021
However, one does not follow Trump's calculation example with the US newspaper.
His claim is wrong.
The weapons costs of more than 80 billion US dollars are not "invented".
However, they also included the cost of train journeys and accommodation for the soldiers and emergency services.
"So far, nobody knows how many weapons the Taliban have confiscated," the report says.
Survey on the Afghanistan mission: Majority in the US sees goals missed
Meanwhile, according to a survey, a large majority of Americans do not see the US military operation in Afghanistan, which has now ended, as successful.
69 percent said that the US had largely missed its goals in Afghanistan, as the Pew Institute announced on Tuesday.
There was little difference between supporters of the Democrats of Biden (69 percent) and those of the Republicans (70 percent).
Clear differences emerged in the assessment of the full US troop withdrawal: 70 percent of the Democrats supported it, but only 34 percent of the Republicans.
Trump wanted to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan on May 1st.
Biden extended the deadline to August 31.
In mid-August, the Taliban, whose regime the US-led operation had overthrown in late 2001, took power again.
With the withdrawal of the last US soldiers from Kabul airport, the international mission in Afghanistan finally came to an end after almost 20 years.
Pew surveyed 10,348 adults in the United States between Aug. 23 and Aug. 29.
So the interviews took place while the evacuation mission of the US armed forces and their allies was in progress in Kabul.
(frs with material from dpa)
