Ted Cruz criticised the Biden administration's decision not to evacuate Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base.
Bagram, once the largest US military base within the country, has fallen to the Taliban.
GOP Sens. Both Lindsey Graham, Ben Sasse and others have called for Biden to retake that key base.
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On July 1, 2021, a US Air Force transport plane arrives at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Wakil Kohsar/Getty Images
Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas, criticized the Biden administration's decision in July to evacuate Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base. This was in response to Thursday's terrorist attack at Kabul Airport that left at least 169 Afghans dead and 13 US military personnel wounded.
Bagram, once the largest US military station in Afghanistan, has fallen to the Taliban and is located approximately 40 miles from Kabul. Before the August 31 deadline for Afghanistan troop withdrawals, the US abandoned the facility.
Texas Republican posted a tweet by Fox News commentator Brithume. Brit Hume tweeted out an August statement by Gen. Mark Milley (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), in which he spoke of the need for the US Embassy to Kabul to be secured.
Milley stated that "our task at that time was to protect the Embassy in order for the consular staff to continue functioning with their consular service, and all that." Milley stated that if we could keep Bagram and the Embassy running, it would require a substantial number of military forces. This would either exceed what we have or stay the same or exceed what we have. We had to choose one or the other and made a decision.
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Cruz, who has been strongly critical of the Biden administration’s Afghanistan strategy tweeted that the US's withdrawal from Bagram was "catastrophic."
"What Milley stated on 8/18 is exactly the same as what DoD stated today at our briefing: They left Bagram because they were told to lower troop levels to ensure security at both Bagram and embassy. He wrote that this political decision to close Bagram BEFORE evacuation was catastrophic.
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Cruz is not the only GOP legislator. Sens. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, and Ben Sasse, Nebraska have decried the decision not to withdraw from Bagram. Graham and Sasse urged President Joe Biden for the retaking of the facility.
Biden was asked during his Thursday speech at the White House if he had rejected calls for the capture of the base.
He said, "On the tactical issues of how to conduct an evacuate or a war," he gathered all major military personnel in Afghanistan, the commanders as well as the Pentagon. "And I ask them for their best military judgement: What would be the most efficient method to complete the mission?"
He said: "They concluded that Bagram wasn't much value added and that it was wiser to concentrate on Kabul. That was my recommendation.
Biden is fast approaching the deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan on August 31st. He has thus far stuck to the date of completing the evacuation of additional Americans and Afghan allies at Kabul's airport.
Since August 14, the US has already evacuated more 109,000 Afghans.
Business Insider has the original article.
