Former Iraq & Afghanistan Ambassador On Our Success & Failures In The Middle East
“We made a catastrophic mistake to abandon Iraq under President Obama. While I congratulate President Obama for his decision against Bin Laden, but I think what he did, disengaging from the region, has given rise to a worse terrorist movement which is ISIS.”
—-Former US Ambassador to Iraq & Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad on the consequences of pulling troops out of Iraq
Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and The United Nations during the George W. Bush Administration, joined Kilmeade & Friends to talk about his new book, “The Envoy: From Kabul To The White House, My Journey Through A Turbulent World“, which chronicles his journey from Afghanistan to America. Ambassador Khalilzad spoke about our intervention in Afghanistan helping out the anti-Soviet forces under President Reagan, the mistakes we have made with our Middle East policy post-cold war, where we went wrong after the first Gulf War against Iraq under Pres. Bush 41, how the surge in Iraq worked under Pres. Bush 43 and the mistakes made today by President Obama in both Iraq and Libya
Watch here:
Ambassador Khalilzad on the mistakes made under President Bush 41 in the Middle East
(ZALMAY KHALILZAD) I think President Bush Sr. made two errors in my view. One, in the aftermath of the victory against the Soviets in Afghanistan, we ignored Afghanistan.
(KILMEADE) Bush 41 this is?
(ZALMAY KHALILZAD) This is Bush 41, president Bush senior. Allowing the power vacuum there, vacuums are extremely powerful in attracting bad folks.
(KILMEADE) We allowed Mullah Omar & Bin Laden to get together.
(ZALMAY KHALILZAD) These guys get together and regional players, Iran and Pakistan played proxy war there and Afghanistan became a sanctuary for terrorists and we ultimately had to go and invade . That neglect after the Soviet war was a mistake. Similarly I believe that after Kuwait was liberated, not using our advantage to bring about change in Bagdad, not go over there and occupy it.
(KILMEADE) Let him get overthrown.
(ZALMAY KHALILZAD) Let him get overthrown because we called upon the people of Iraq to rise against Saddam and they did but then Saddam massacred them by the tens of thousands using chemical weapons against the Kurds. Then we went to protect the Kurds but never the less the rest of Iraq was stuck with both Saddam and sanctions which created huge resentment against us.
Ambassador Khalilzad on the surge in Iraq under Pres Bush 43, killing Bin Laden and the mistake Pres. Obama made pulling out of Iraq.
(ZALMAY KHALILZAD) The surge worked not only because we had forces there but also because we were working with locals, the Sunni tribes, building Iraqi armed forces with the Iraqi government establishing a unity government and it worked. But then we made a catastrophic mistake to abandon Iraq under President Obama. While I congratulate President Obama for his decision against Bin Laden but I think what he did, disengaging from the region has given rise to a worse terrorist movement which is ISIS.
