George Conway is offering rare praise for former President Donald Trump for starting the process to end the war in Afghanistan and withdraw U.S. troops.
In a series of tweets on Monday, George Conway — husband to Kellyanne Conway — shared a video of Trump claiming credit for starting the withdrawal of U.S. forces and wrote, “Both [Trump] and [President Joe Biden] deserve credit, not blame.”
Both he and Biden deserve credit, not blame. https://t.co/oqk3ri9n4s
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 16, 2021
Trump administration officials brokered an agreement with the Taliban last year to bring an end to the war, and Biden decided to follow through with that deal and withdraw U.S. forces.
While intelligence assessments initially predicted that Kabul, Afghanistan, the capital, could be overrun in six to 12 months, the Taliban stunned administration officials by swiftly taking control of the country in a matter of days.
George Conway also tweeted a story from The Wall Street Journal about veterans of the war reflecting on the withdrawal. He highlighted one quote, “‘What are we going to do, stay in another 20 years?’ said [a] former Army paratrooper [who] lost both his legs when he stepped on a 20-pound IED in Panjwai, part of Kandahar province, in 2011.”
"'What are we going to do, stay in another 20 years?' said [a] former Army paratrooper [who] lost both his legs when he stepped on a 20-pound IED in Panjwai, part of Kandahar province, in 2011." https://t.co/xRqF3xjsMG
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 16, 2021
He re-tweeted others who defended the decision to end the war:
"The reality, as retired Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the former White House czar for Afghanistan during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, admitted, 'We didn’t have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking.'" https://t.co/v6bJgb8cir
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 16, 2021
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 16, 2021
George Conway’s comments come as the U.S. is carrying out a rushed evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies.
Biden has authorized the deployment of 7,000 U.S. troops to the country to “make sure we can have an orderly and safe drawdown of US personnel and other allied personnel and an orderly and safe evacuation of Afghans who helped our troops during our mission and those at special risk from the Taliban advance.”
On Monday, videos and images showed Afghan people attempting to cling to U.S. military planes as they tried to flee the country. Some videos showed people falling from planes during take-off.