Barack Obama got some bad news on Monday when U.S. Army Gen. John Nicholson spoke out to slam him and say that the former president led jihadists to believe the U.S. military had lost their will.
Conservative Tribune reported that in a public video, Nicholson said that from 2011-2016, the U.S. sent telegraphs to the Taliban promising that U.S. troops were leaving Afghanistan. Because of this, the Taliban saw the U.S. forces as weak and believed they had “lost (their) will.”
“From 2011 to 2016, we telegraphed to the enemy that we were leaving,” Nicholson said in the video.
“We drew down our forces steadily – I’d say too far and too fast – and so the enemy believed that in this contest of wills, we had lost our will. Number one, I’m concerned about international will, and international will to succeed.”
Nicholson went on to say that now that we have a pro-military president in Donald Trump, “we now have the will to succeed.”
Nicholson had previously said that he was “very concerned about the level of losses” in Afghanistan and that between November 2015 and November 2016, the Afghani government lost control of about 15 percent of the country’s districts. However, that all changed when Trump took office.
This comes after President Trump spent much of his Thanksgiving address praising the United States’ service men and women for their progress in the war on terror.
“We have to let you win. They weren’t letting you win before. They were letting you play even … We’re letting you win,” he encouraged them.
We’re so thankful that we finally have a strong president who loves and respects the U.S. military! God bless you, Donald Trump!
The report also noted the Afghan government is steadily losing control of areas within the country. According to the report, the government lost control of about 15 percent of the country’s districts between November 2015 and November 2016.
Nicholson said 20 of 98 designated terrorist groups operate in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, giving it the highest concentration of terror groups anywhere in the world.
Senator John McCain suggested that Russia is “playing a significant” role in Afghanistan and Nicholson agreed, saying that Russian meddling this year “has become more difficult.”
Nicholson said Russia has tried to publicly legitimize the Taliban by saying the extremist group is helping in the fight against IS, but he called this idea a “false narrative.”
According to Nicholson, Afghan security forces have eliminated about half of the IS group’s fighters and reduced the territory they hold by two-thirds.
Nicholson said he feared this public support could allow Taliban power to spill out of Afghanistan and into other countries as the group continues to gain territory.
In December, Nicholson said the Taliban controls about 10 percent of the population, while the Afghan government controls about two-thirds. The rest are contested.
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