Former Prime Minister John Howard—who deployed Australian troops to Afghanistan in 2001 along with democratic allies—has questioned the need for the U.S. administration to withdraw all forces from the country immediately. “There was no reason why a very much smaller force could not have been left there for an indeterminant time,” he told Sky News Australia. “That would have prevented some of the negative images that have clearly come out of Afghanistan and could well have emboldened the Afghan army, provided it was supplemented by some air cover, to have provided some more resistance to the Taliban,” he added. “I don’t think it was absolutely essential to withdraw every last soldier from Afghanistan.” Howard was also critical of setting a date for the withdrawal of U.S. forces by the previous administration, saying it gave away a key negotiating point. “I think once the date is taken over. The date was …
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