Wall Street Journal Editorial Board Blasts Trump Comment on Russia: ‘Cannot Recall a More Absurd Misstatement of History’
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board slammed President Donald Trump in a scathing piece for saying the Soviet Union was justified when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
When Trump held his rambling 90 minute press spray at the White House earlier this week, he mischaracterized the Soviet-Afghan War by saying the Russians invaded in an effort to fight terrorism. Typically, historians look back on the war and say it actually happened because the Soviets were trying to hold a fellow communist government together before it collapsed from civil war and gave America a chance to take greater action in the region.
“Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan,” Trump said. “But Russia should be fighting. The reason Russia was in, in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is it was a tough fight.”
The WSJ editorial board took notice of Trump’s comments, and they started their response by blasting his dismissiveness towards U.S. allies who send troops to help American forces in their military endeavors.
“This mockery is a slander against every ally that has supported the U.S. effort in Afghanistan with troops who fought and often died,” the piece says. “The United Kingdom has had more than 450 killed fighting in Afghanistan.
The piece goes on to slam Trump’s “utterly false narrative” about the war by lining out its history and elaborating on how the Soviets tried to justify their invasion.
“We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President…The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was a defining event in the Cold War, making clear to all serious people the reality of the communist Kremlin’s threat. Mr. Trump’s cracked history can’t alter that reality.”
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