On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) argued that the Biden administration should give some of the aid money it’s sending to Afghanistan to veterans’ groups that have protected vulnerable Afghans and use the money as “as leverage in talks with the Taliban” but is instead allowing the Taliban to use “our taxpayer dollars to consolidate their rule.”
Waltz said, “Let’s talk about what they should be doing with that money. Why aren’t they giving at least a portion of that money to these veterans’ groups who have so heroically stepped up when their government failed and are still, to this day, keeping thousands of Afghans who are being targeted by the Taliban safe in safe houses with medical treatment, with transportation, moving them so that they’re not hunted down, taking care of girls and women that are now barred from going to school. Why aren’t they giving that money to these groups who have proven to be so effective? Why aren’t they using it as leverage in talks with the Taliban to say, you know what Taliban? Let girls go back to school. Stop hunting down our allies. How about you release the American hostage that you’re holding. But instead, we’re getting nothing from the Taliban for that money and what I can tell you, having served on the ground is the terrorist groups always skim off the top to the tunes of millions of dollars. … I don’t care how much they try to promise us that it’s going to go to independent organizations. When those organizations have a gun to their head and are told, give us 30%, they’re going to do it and then the Taliban decides who the winners and losers are and uses our taxpayer dollars to consolidate their rule. It’s just infuriating, it’s irresponsible, it’s clueless, and it’s heartless.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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