George W Bush Breaks Silence, Takes Veiled Swipe At Joe Biden: “It breaks my heart, I’m afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm”
Former President George W. Bush broke his silence and took a few veiled swipes at President Joe Biden for the withdrawal from Afghanistan in an interview with a German media outlet released today.
Asked by a reporter from German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle whether the withdrawal is a mistake, Bush said: “You know, I think it is, yeah, because I think the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad.”
“It’s unbelievable how that society changed from the brutality of the Taliban, and all of a sudden — sadly — I’m afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm. I’m sad,” Bush said. “Laura and I spent a lot of time with Afghan women, and they’re scared.
“And I think about all the interpreters and people that helped not only U.S. troops but NATO troops, and it seems like they’re just going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people.
“And it breaks my heart,” he said.
“I think if we start with the premise that we’re all God’s children and every life matters, then all of a sudden, one has a different perspective of how to enforce the border and how to deal with people that are escaping tyranny,” Bush said about the immigration debate before adding:
“Anyway, other than that, I’m pretty much out of politics.”
The former president said of Angela Merkel who didn’t close the borders to refugees:
“My first reaction was, there’s a woman with a big heart. And I’m sure she was motivated by human compassion and it was clearly a tough political decision for her but she took a lead.”
“I think populism reflects a frustration with society. In other words, here in the states, I made a decision in 2008 to use taxpayers’ money to bail out Wall Street to prevent a worldwide depression and that made a lot of people mad, really mad,” Bush said.
“I wouldn’t have done it had it not been necessary to save the economy. But you can’t explain that to somebody, you can’t prove a negative,” he added.
Former President George W. Bush criticized the Western withdrawal from Afghanistan in an interview with a German broadcaster, saying he fears that Afghan women and girls will “suffer unspeakable harm.” https://t.co/k8YIqffpqZ
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 14, 2021
W. Bush rarely publicly 2nd guesses his successors. Makes an exception on Biden and Afghanistan
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) July 14, 2021
"Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm. This is a mistake. … They're just going to be left behind to be slaughtered” https://t.co/0LTnoCGyHy