President Donald Trump boasted Monday that he could easily end the Afghanistan war “in a week” but stressed that would entail killing millions of people, which he didn’t want to do.
During a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump said he wanted Pakistan to help put an end to the 18-year-old war.
“I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people,” Trump told reporters. “If I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth. … It would be over in — literally, in 10 days.”
Trump, who has long criticized lengthy wars, said the Afghan conflict was “ridiculous,” adding that it helped turn the nation into the world’s “policemen.”
“I don’t want to go that route,” Trump said of his supposed military plan. “So we’re working with Pakistan and others to extricate ourselves. Nor do we want to be policemen, because basically we’re policemen right now. And we’re not supposed to be policemen.”
The war in Afghanistan, which began after the September 11, 2001 attacks, was one of the top items on Trump’s agenda during his meeting with Khan. The Trump administration has for some time been engaged in peace talks with the Taliban aimed at ending the war.
The Pakistani prime minister agreed with President Trump that the conflict must end through peace talks, saying there was “no military solution for Afghanistan.”
“If you go all-out military, there will be millions and millions of people who will die,” Khan added.
Trump, who signaled the U.S. could restore hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, said the country could be crucial in stabilizing Afghanistan after a possible U.S. withdrawal.
“I think we have a better relationship with Pakistan right now than we did when we were paying that money. But all of that can come back,” Trump noted, referring to the $1.3 billion in annual aid paid to Pakistan.
The aid was suspended in January 2018, when the Trump administration accused Pakistan of not doing enough to combat terrorism. At the time, an administration official stressed that the aid would be restored “on certain items if Pakistan meets our security concerns.”
Meanwhile, the office of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani sought “clarification” Tuesday about President Trump’s comments. The statement issued by the Afghan president’s office said that while it “supports the U.S. efforts for ensuring peace in Afghanistan, the government underscores that foreign heads of state cannot determine Afghanistan’s fate.”
Trump’s remarks were met with harsh criticism online as well. A tweet by Rahmatullah Nabil, a candidate in Afghanistan’s upcoming presidential election, said that all Afghan leaders “should drop their selfishness & announce that we will make peace among ourselves,” adding that there was no need for the U.S. to mediate, The Washington Post reports.
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