'Imbecilic': Ex-UK leader Tony Blair slams Afghan withdrawal

The former British prime minister who deployed troops to Afghanistan 20 years ago says the U_S_ decision to withdraw from the country has “every Jihadist group round the world cheering.”

LONDON -- Tony Blair, the British prime minister who deployed troops to Afghanistan 20 years ago after the 9/11 attacks, says the U.S. decision to withdraw from the country has “every Jihadist group round the world cheering.” In a lengthy essay posted on his website late Saturday, Blair said the sudden and chaotic pullout that allowed the Taliban to reclaim power undermined everything that had been achieved in Afghanistan over the past two decades, including advances in living standards and the education of girls. "The abandonment of Afghanistan and its people is tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, not in their interests and not in ours,” said Blair who served as prime minister and Labour Party leader during 1997-2007, a period that also saw him back the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003. “The world is now uncertain of where the West stands because it is so obvious that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan in this way was driven not by grand strategy but by politics," he added.