More responses are coming in from Montanans, especially those who have served in the armed forces, regarding the situation in Afghanistan.

One of those who is most vocal is former Navy Seal Commander, U.S. Congressman and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who said the exit from the Kabul airport was a stain on the reputation of the U.S.

“That's a stain on America's greatness,” said Zinke. “There is no doubt in a course of a few months; look where our country has gone. You have inflation. You have the Biden administration asking OPEC to produce more oil and shutting our industry down. We have a border that had 210,000 people coming across last month alone, and now you have a complete collapse of Afghanistan.”

Zinke said there was one specific strategy that should have been utilized to remove essential personnel from Afghanistan.

“One of the mistakes we made was that first we relied on the Kabul airstrip which only has one strip, but we left Kandahar which has two strips on and a lot of secure space. So we left the right location if we're going to do an evacuation of this size. We pulled out and we pulled out in the middle of the night.”

Zinke was in favor of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, but not how it was done by the Biden Administration.

“I agreed with removing our presence, but you don't do it this way,” he said. “What he did is he abandoned our allies. And you saw the pictures, horrific pictures. And I can tell you from a Special Forces point of view, winning the hearts and minds of the people and we're across the globe still fighting terrorism every day. The signal the Biden administration just gave everyone that works with us is you know what, we will be there but if things get tough, we will abandon you.”

Zinke said the nation’s reputation has suffered great harm.

“Well, you know what it does is our reputation as a great nation state,” he said. “So when we serve in other parts of the world, is this the big thing? It was unnecessary. But again, you look at the disaster in the last few months for the woke movement,  we need to wake up America.”

Zinke is running for the Republican nomination for the newly opened Montana Congressional seat.

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