GOP Rep. Fallon: Biden Made ‘Political’ Decision to Leave Afghanistan During Fighting Season and We Left $7 Billion in Military Equipment
On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Evening Edit,” Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) stated that President Joe Biden made a “political” decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in August during the fighting season rather than wait until the winter to give the Afghan government more to time to get its footing and said that the $7 billion in military equipment that the Pentagon’s inspector general report said was left in the country is “exactly the kind of stuff that would be better used in Ukraine, rather than by the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
Fallon said, [relevant remarks begin around 00:31] “[T]o set a date in August for a withdrawal that — you know, fighting in Afghanistan, Liz, is seasonal. And if you’re going to leave, leave in the winter so you can give this government — which was really in its embryonic stages — four or five months to get their footing. And, unfortunately, Joe Biden, for some political reason that is — no one really knows why, exactly, he left in August at the height of the fighting season. But the IG report that just came out showed that there was $7 billion worth of equipment left, $4 billion in ground vehicles, $1 billion in military aircraft, $300 million in aircraft munitions, and, get this, 316,000 small arms, sniper rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, exactly the kind of stuff that would be better used in Ukraine, rather than by the Taliban in Afghanistan.”
