Breaks my heart: Bush calls troops withdrawal from Af ‘a mistake’

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ Former US President George W. Bush has labelled the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan “a mistake”, in an interview.

“I’m afraid Afghan women and girls are going to suffer unspeakable harm,” he said, adding that he was also concerned for translators and other people who gave support to foreign troops in Afghanistan.

“They’re just going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people, and it breaks my heart,” Bush said in an interview to the German state broadcaster from his house in Maine.

The comments of the former US President, whose administration began the US-led war against the Taliban in 2001, refer to the hardline Islamic Taliban that are making sweeping gains across the country amid the drawdown of US and NATO forces, set to be complete by September — 20 years after the war began.

Bush sent troops to Afghanistan in autumn 2001, following the September 11 terror attacks in the US. Bush added that he believed German Chancellor Angela Merkel “feels the same way” about the pullout.