Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane (ret.) said Friday that it “just cannot be the case” that America can recognize the Taliban “as a legitimate government” because it “enabled 9/11” and is responsible for 3,000 American dead in that terrorist attack.
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“I also hear, because we want to work with the Taliban, we’ve got people in the State Department that believe we should recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, because we have to work with them,” Keane told “Fox & Friends.”
“The Taliban enabled 9/11, as 3,000 dead in the United States. The Taliban killed 2,400-plus Americans, and wounded thousands of them, some of them tragically maimed, catastrophically, for the rest of their life. This is the Taliban we would consider recognizing and partnering with? No. That just cannot be the case,” Keane continued, saying it “a stain on our national honor” to leave any Americans or Afghan allies behind. (RELATED: ‘I’m Stunned’: Gen. Jack Keane Says Biden News Conference ‘Makes No Sense Whatsoever In Terms Of What Reality)
But the retired four-star general said he does not believe that policy will change because “the president has made up his mind” even though “he knows he’s leaving American citizens behind. He knows he’s leaving thousands of our Afghan partners behind.”
Keane urged President Joe Biden to recognize that America does not leave “our people behind when we have the capability to do something about it.”
In a terrorist attack Thursday in Kabul, 13 U.S. military personnel died.
Keane said Biden “misrepresented the truth” about the entire withdrawal when he claimed the “entire military chain of command” agreed with his policy. (RELATED: ‘These People Disgust Me’: Former Marine Says Biden Administration Only Worried About Polls, Not Fallen Soldiers)
President Joe Biden speaks during an event on Aug. 23 at the White House. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The former general suggested it required “a pretty large degree of skepticism” when Biden suggested the administration was “in unison on everything.”
Biden commented on the day’s tragic events at a late afternoon news conference Thursday, where he admitted he had been provided with a list of journalists who could ask questions. He claimed that the U.S. military made the decision to evacuate the Bagram air base. The president has pledged to remain in Afghanistan until all Americans have been evacuated.