Tucker Carlson Says Kabul Bombings Perfect Way to ‘Knock US From Perch as Preeminent World Power’

At least 110 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in the wake of Thursday’s bomb and gun attacks on Kabul airport, according to health authorities. The Afghan branch of Daesh* claimed responsibility for the acts of terror. Among the dead were 12 US Marines and a Navy corpsman, and 28 Taliban fighters assigned to guard the airport.

Thursday’s terror attacks at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul were key components for a playbook for how US officials with a “deep animus against the United States” might act to “permanently knock” the country “from its perch as the preeminent world power and degrade and humiliate America for good,” paleoconservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson has suggested.

In a segment airing Thursday night, in the aftermath of the airport attacks, Tucker suggested that the first step to achieving the goal of “destroying” the US’s international image would be to “delay your withdrawal from Afghanistan for 19 years, long after there was any national security justification for being there. You would turn a war into a welfare programme and you would turn your military into an NGO [non-governmental organization]. That would humiliate everyone involved.”

This, the host suggested, would require spending trillions of dollars for nothing in return, apart from “increasing local corruption and making opium poppies the national crop” of Afghanistan.

“As the occupying power, you would run Afghanistan so badly, with such unbelievable stupidity and overbearing arrogance that by the end much of the population would yearn for the return of brutal religious extremists,” Carlson bitterly added.

“Then, when it was finally time to go, you would ignore the relevant details of the withdrawal. You wouldn’t plan your exit. You would just hope for the best,” the host suggested. Then, he said, such America-hating officials would give preference for evacuations for foreign nationals over US citizens, and “go on television back in your own country to brag about what an amazing job you’ve done. You’d call yourself a hero. You’d compare your evacuation of Kabul to the Berlin airlift. And that way, once you’ve done that, the rest of the world would know you’re not simply incompetent and weak, but you’re also delusional…a lunatic with no self-respect.”

At that point, the host noted, America’s enemies might deem the current moment “the perfect time to take advantage of your diminished condition” and strike, as they did at the Kabul airport on Thursday.

Tucker blasted President Joe Biden for remaining “hidden and silent” for hours after the airport attacks, and suggested that when Biden did speak, he did so in a weak and halting way, “at a pace half of what a normal person speaks at, that he was going to somehow hunt down and punish the people who killed our Marines today. And all of a sudden, this didn’t sound a lot like a withdrawal from Afghanistan at all.”

The host pointed out that Thursday’s attacks were warned about ahead of time by intelligence, but that the Pentagon appears to have done little about it, with commanders being “too busy tweeting about equity.”

Diversity is a number - do you have people that don’t look or think like you in the room? Inclusion is listening and valuing those people. #WomensEqualityDay reminds us we’re smarter and more lethal when we come together as an inclusive, cohesive team. Our values demand it. pic.twitter.com/b72l2EcIn0

— SMA Michael Grinston (@16thSMA) August 26, 2021

In a press conference Thursday, General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM), whose area of responsibility includes Afghanistan, told reporters in Washington that the Kabul airport attacks were the result of a “failure” by the Taliban* to ensure security as they promised, despite “some of those guys [being] very scrupulously good.” McKenzie went on to indicate that the Pentagon has shared information with the Taliban “so that they can actually do some searching out there for us” for the suspected culprits, and to say that the militants have helped to “protect” the US, “thwart some attacks,” with the group proving “useful to work with” overall.

Commenting on these remarks, Carlson recalled that McKenzie made the remarks on the militants being “scrupulously good” “after the Taliban let a suicide bomber through a checkpoint at the airport that killed 13 Americans.” As for the CENTCOM’s chief’s comments on sharing intelligence with the militants, the host suggested that while “it’s hard to believe any of this is actually happening, or that [the] quote is real…it is happening.”

He went on to note that among the intelligence the US was apparently sharing with the Taliban were the names of US citizens who remain in Afghanistan. “Why are we doing that? Why would you give it to the Taliban? That can’t be right. Well it is right. It’s true.”

Kabul Blasts

At least 110 people were killed and over 1,330 others injured in Thursday’s twin explosions and gun attacks at the Kabul airport. The Pentagon has confirmed that 13 US service members perished, with 28 Taliban fighters also killed. The US casualties, which also included 15 injuries, were the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan since 2011. President Biden vowed to retaliate, stressing that America would “not forgive” and “not forget” and would ‘hunt down’ the perpetrators and make them “pay.” The Taliban also condemned the attacks, calling them the work of “evil circles,” and denouncing them, saying that “targeting innocent civilians is an act of terrorism” that the whole world should condemn. The militants maintain that at least one of the explosions took place in an “area where US forces” were “responsible” for security.

Daesh-Khorasan*, a terrorist outfit affiliated with Daesh, and with whom the Taliban has waged a brutal factional war since at least 2015, claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attacks, saying they targeted “the Crusaders and apostates around Kabul Airport,” including “American forces, translators and spies cooperating with them.”

The airport attacks come amid the ongoing evacuation of US forces, foreign diplomats and civilians from Afghanistan. The emergency evacuations began earlier this month after a ten-day series of Taliban blitz offensives toppled the Afghan government.

* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.