WSJ editorial blasts Trump for 'utterly false narrative' on Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Source: The Hill | January 4, 2019 | John Bowden

The conservative-leaning editorial board of The Wall Street Journal took aim at President Trump on Friday after comments made by Trump earlier in the week suggested that the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union was justified.

In an editorial published Friday by the newspaper, the board’s writers blasted Trump’s comments during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting as “absurd” and “reprehensible,” while condemning the president’s grasp of history regarding the Soviet invasion of the South Asian country as an “utterly false narrative.”

“He said: ‘The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there,'” the board wrote, quoting the president.

“Right to be there? We cannot recall a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President,” the article continued. “The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan with three divisions in December 1979 to prop up a fellow communist government.”

In the brief editorial, the newspaper also attacked Trump for his comments about troop commitments from U.S. allies, quoting comments made by Trump during the same Cabinet meeting that appeared to minimize allied contributions.

“They tell me a hundred times, ‘Oh, we sent you soldiers. We sent you soldiers,’ ” Trump said during the meeting.

“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 board responded.

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