Sep 17, 2020 - World

McMaster says Trump's Afghanistan policy has left U.S. less safe

H.R. McMaster in the Oval Office in March 2018.

H.R. McMaster in the Oval Office in March 2018. Photo: Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images

The Trump administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan and partnership with the Taliban has made the United States less safe, President Trump's former national security adviser H.R. McMaster told CBS News in a 60 Minutes interview set to air Sunday.

Why it matters: McMaster says the president partnered with the Taliban before peace talks in Doha, Qatar began this month, and diminished the sacrifice of American troops who died during the Afghanistan War.

What he's saying: "I think what [President Trump] did with this new policy, is he, in effect, is partnering with the Taliban against, in many ways, the Afghan government," McMaster told CBS News.

  • "And so, I think that it's an unwise policy. And I think what we require in Afghanistan is a sustained commitment to help the Afghan government and help the Afghan security forces to bear the brunt of this fight."

The big picture: Delegates from the Afghanistan government and the Taliban opened direct peace negotiations last week, hoping to end roughly two decades of fighting.

  • The U.S. signed a deal with the Taliban in February aimed at ending the longest war in U.S. history.
  • As part of the deal, the U.S. agreed to gradually pull troops out of the country, while the Taliban promised to prevent terror groups from filling the void and to enter peace negotiations with the Afghan government.

McMaster claims in his upcoming book, "Battlegrounds," that Afghanistan is still a hotbed of terrorism and that terror organizations which threaten the U.S. are stronger now than they were before Sept. 11, 2001, according to CBS News.

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