Howard: Donald Trump cannot escape blame for Afghanistan crisis

John Howard canes former US president for failing to secure any deal with the Taliban before agreeing to troop withdrawal.

Former prime minister John Howard says Donald Trump must accept some blame for the United States’ swift retreat from Afghanistan as the country faces a dire humanitarian crisis.

Mr Howard, who deployed Australian troops to Afghanistan in 2001 following the 9/11 terror attacks, has condemned the US withdrawal from Afghanistan under Joe Biden’s leadership. On Wednesday he described the exit as “too hasty” and argued the collapse of the opposition to the Taliban should “never have been allowed to occur.” Mr Howard has also defended his decision to send troops into the conflict, declaring “nobody who wears the Australian uniform ever dies in vain.”

Speaking to 2GB radio on Thursday, Mr Howard said the US withdrawal had “left a lot to be desired.”

The US president has faced criticism from his predecessor, who claims the nation’s exit from Afghanistan had “humiliated” the United States.

But Mr Howard said Donald Trump could not “escape blame.”

“He made the terrible mistake of saying that America was going before he secured any kind of understanding or deal with the Taliban,” he said.

“That’s a pretty ordinary way of negotiating with a ruthless mob such as that.”

But Mr Howard acknowledged that the “United States could not have stayed there forever.”

He said he feared for the future of Afghanistan, noting that gains made for women and girls would likely be lost.

“The human dimension of this is terrible,” he said.

A fraught security situation in Kabul is hampering Australia’s ability to evacuate citizens and Afghan locals who supported the nations’ troops during the two-decade conflict. Mr Howard previously said Australia had a moral obligation to help local staff who supported Australia. But he said it was “far too early” to tell if the government had left its evacuation operations too late.

“It should be said in defence of the government they have already settled about 400-500 of these people in Australia,” he said.

“I don’t think anybody a few months ago expected there to be such a rapid collapse as happened in the last two or three weeks.”