The Conversation (0)
Sinead Butler
Aug 19, 2021
Donald Trump has waded into the Afghanistan crisis with his latest comments - but it looks like the former president needs to brush up on his history.
The dire situation in Afghanistan, after the Taliban took control of the country’s capital Kabul, has shown distressing scenes of Afghans desperately trying to flee the country in the overcrowded airport.
Inevitably the crisis has started a blame game between the leaders involved, with Trump being rightly named as one of those responsible for the lead up to the events that unfolded by earlier suggesting US troops were not being taken out of Afghanistan quick enough by the Biden administration, The Hill reported.
During a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, he even praised the Taliban for being “good fighters” but now Trump has released a statement to which he attempts to shift the blame.
In his cryptic press statement on Tuesday, instead of going into detail about the complexities of the situation, he attempts to summarise his thoughts in just six words: “This could be—Afghanistan—another Dunkirk.”
Former President does not appear to understand that the evacuation of Dunkirk was considered to be a huge success. https://t.co/gAgkdRres9— Andrew Feinberg (@Andrew Feinberg) 1629325561
If you look past the dodgy syntax, he appears to be worried that Afghanistan will be another Dunkirk - in reference to the Battle of Dunkirk during World War II in 1940 that ended up being a massive rescue operation.
Perhaps, Trump is calling on countries to complete a similar rescue mission to Dunkirk and save thousands of Afghans? We’re thinking probably not.
It seems more likely that the 45th president has failed to pick up a history book to learn that 198,000 British and 140,000 French troops were saved at Dunkirk - 380,000 soldiers altogether, according to History.
Though people on Twitter were quick to highlight Trump’s mistake and duly mock him for it by taking it upon themselves to give him a history lesson.
Dunkirk is generally considered to be one of the greatest withdrawal missions — if not the very greatest — in the h… https://t.co/GfDxYGTOad— Tristan Snell (@Tristan Snell) 1629330438
You'd think that Trump would have been clued in by the fact that it's literally nicknamed the "Miracle of Dunkirk". https://t.co/TaVcjOvsY8— Kendall Brown (@Kendall Brown) 1629326700
Show me you know absolutely nothing about Dunkirk and Churchill without explicitly stating you know absolutely noth… https://t.co/P5aO5eJMSC— Jake Tapper (@Jake Tapper) 1629153517
Donald Trump: the Afghanistan evacuation is as bad as Dunkirk was. Historians: https://t.co/pCzGeQxNO8— teatime75 (@teatime75) 1629327586
I'm speechless. I accept Trump is an unlearned idiot, but does he have NO ONE near him who has read a book or knows… https://t.co/mi1DWM9MZb— Kurt Eichenwald (@Kurt Eichenwald) 1629331033
…successfully evacuating massive amounts of people against seemingly impossible odds? https://t.co/xmXWjkfZ8V— Hutch (@Hutch) 1629327997
Meanwhile, during his Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Trump blamed former president George W Bush for the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan and described it as the “worst decision in the history of our country.”
“Think of it, we took this horrible place, it was the worst decision to go into the Middle East, I know the Bush family will not be happy but I believe it was the worst decision in the history of our country when we decided to go into the Middle East,” he said.