On a recent visit to Habersham and White County family-owned farms, US Representative Andrew Clyde shared his beliefs on current issues the United States is facing— particularly, the conflict the world is watching in Ukraine.
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Clyde said that a perceived weakness, projected by the United States in the Biden administration’s decision to pull US forces from Afghanistan, gave Russians the resolution to move forward with their attack.
“I think our weaknesses in the last month on the world stage [began] when our president made the disastrous decision to pull out of Afghanistan,” Clyde said. “The way he did it … was a disaster and it projected weakness on the world stage. And when you project weakness that invites aggression.”
President Donald Trump signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in 2020, by which all American troops would leave the country by May 2021. Biden extended that date by three months. In the final week of the withdrawal, terrorists from the group ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans in an attack outside the airport.
Clyde said that “bad actors” on the world stage are pushing aggression against other countries. While he isn’t sure what the outcome of the invasion of Ukraine will be, he says he does know that the United States will support North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries.
“When you have bad actors on the world stage, and the world is full of bad actors, the top four are Russia, China, Iran and North Korea … not necessarily in that order, but we’re seeing Russian aggression this very day,” Clyde went on to say. “That is because of weakness projected on the world stage. And I don’t know exactly— I can’t tell you what the outcome of that will be, [but] I can tell you that we’re going to support the NATO countries.”
He says he supports Ukrainians in their fight against Russia.
“I think we should support Ukraine as well in their fight for freedom,” Clyde said. “I think every solitary person on the face of this planet deserves to have freedom and deserves our God-given, inalienable human rights.”
This article has been updated with additional information
