Congress and nongovernmental organizations are taking it upon themselves to help Americans and allies stuck behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., told Newsmax.
"The reason we have to do this, and the reason Congress is having to lead our way out of this, is because the administration isn't doing it, and because the administration isn't leading," Waltz said Wednesday on "Spicer & Co," adding that someone had to "step into this void of feckless and weak leadership coming from this administration."
The swift Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has handed the gains of 20 years and trillions of dollars over to terrorists and helped make the al-Qaida masterminds of 9/11 stronger than ever, Waltz, a former Green Beret who served in Afghanistan, told co-hosts Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith.
"I have a very unhealthy mix of rage and grief right now," Waltz said. "My heart is broken."
Waltz said the U.S. is "in a worse place than 2001" and "it's not a matter of if" al-Qaida returns as a worldwide terrorist threat, "but when."
"That blood is going to be on Biden's hands," he added, dismissing the "over-the-horizon" counterterrorism efforts hailed by President Joe Biden as a false promise because of the lack of bases the U.S. once had in the region.
"We are in a horrible position to keep a lid on al-Qaida," Waltz said.
And the unconditional Afghanistan withdrawal put in action by the administration has also created a burgeoning hostage crisis unlike the U.S. has seen.
"We are on the cusp of the largest hostage crisis, mass hostage crisis, in American history," Waltz continued. "This is going to make 1979's Tehran hostage crisis look like a sleepover — with Jimmy Carter — but I think we've got somebody in the White House who's worst than Jimmy Carter."
Biden has effectively caved in to the Taliban as the returning leadership in Afghanistan, the same regime that allowed al-Qaida to train and expand its membership and launch the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
"The Taliban need leverage, and we're handing it to them," Waltz concluded, vowing to help Americans and allies in Afghanistan get back home.
"It is heartbreaking and infuriating, but it's absolutely worth it — promises made, promises kept."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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