'We should inflict pain on them': Pompeo issues fiery call for Biden to unleash airstrikes on Taliban surrounding Kabul and says the extremist group would not 'run wild and free' if Trump was still in office
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has issued a call for President Joe Biden to take charge of rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and launch air strikes against the Taliban who are surrounding the capital of Kabul.
'It looks like the Biden demonstration has just failed in its execution of its own plan. It looks like they are now trying to get folks out. It also looks like there's a bit of panic having to reinsert soldiers to get them out,' Pompeo told Fox News on Sunday.
'I hope we get these folks out. I hope they will bring the airpower. They should go crush these Taliban who are surrounding Kabul.
'We should do it with American airpower, we should put pressure on them, we should inflict cost and pain on them.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed President Joe Biden amid the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan
'We shouldn't be begging them to spare the lives of Americans, we should be imposing costs on the Taliban until they allow us to execute our plan in Afghanistan.'
Pompeo, who was Secretary of State during the Trump administration, said that the extremist group would not be running around 'wild and free' were Trump still in charge.
'The Taliban are aggressive and they are fearless because we haven't an administration that has refused to adopt a deterrence model, the one that President Trump and I had.
'We're letting the Taliban run free and wild all around Afghanistan. They have to understand that there's an administration with a backbone and seriousness to execute on the things that matter and protect and defend America.
'Were I still the Secretary of State or the Commander-in-Chief like President Trump, the Taliban would have understood that there were real costs to pay if there were plots against the United States of America from -- the Taliban would have learned it as well.'
Pompeo together with former President Trump were instrumental in organizing the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country. Pompeo is pictured during the signing ceremony of a peace agreement between US, Taliban, in Doha, Qatar in February 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani attend the signing of a US-Taliban agreement in the Qatari capital Doha on February 29, 2020
Fox News host Chris Wallace noted prominent military officials and Republicans were highly critical of the deal made under Trump's and Pompeo's leadership
During a ten minute interview, Pompeo later defended meeting with Taliban leaders last September, and ultimately giving them a form of 'legitimacy'.
Host Chris Wallace noted that Pompeo even praised the extremist group at one point.
'Do you regret giving the Taliban that legitimacy? Do you regret pressing the Afghan government to release 5,000 prisoners, which they did, some of whom are now back on the battlefield fighting with the Taliban?' Wallace asked.
'You make peace with your enemies. The statement that I made that day was absolutely true. You can ask the military leaders on the ground. We did good work to crush Al Qaeda. When we left office there were fewer than 200 Al Qaeda left in Afghanistan.'
Wallace pointed out that Biden seemed to placing the majority of blame on the current situation on Trump who left him with the troop withdrawal deal.
'If the risks weren't so serious, it would be pathetic,' Pompeo said. 'I wouldn't have let my 10-year old son get away from this kind of pathetic blame-shifting.'
U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo meets with the Taliban political affairs chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Doha, in September 2020.
Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace after the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday
Washington and the Taliban signed a landmark deal in 2020 that would see them agree to the withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan in return for insurgent guarantees. On Sunday Taliban fighters took control of Afghan presidential palace, pictured above
Pompeo then insisted that the Trump administration 'never trusted the Taliban.'
'We made abundantly clear if they did not live up to that piece of paper, to the words that they had put on the ground, we weren't going to allow them to just walk away from any deal that they had struck, we were going to go crush them. We were going to impose real costs on them.
'We were not going to let them take these provincial capitals. They understood that American power was going to come to their village, to their community, to their friends and family around here and we were going to make sure that they understood. We didn't take the word of the Taliban, we watched their actions on the ground. When they did the right thing and they helped us against terror, that was all good men when they didn't, we crush them.'
'I do not regret my decision,' Biden said last week. 'Afghan leaders have to come together. We lost thousands—lost to death and injury—thousands of American personnel. They've got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.'
'I do not regret my decision,' President Biden said last week. 'Afghan leaders have to come together. We lost thousands—lost to death and injury—thousands of American personnel. They've got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation.'
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