The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was a “strategic fiasco,” Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz said.
Waltz made his comments on the Ruthless podcast because the Chinese are reportedly moving in to take advantage of Afghanistan’s natural resources.
“[Bagram Air Base] is the only base in the world that we had in a country that borders China. We had a massive air base right in China's back door,” Waltz said on the Ruthless podcast. “Bagram is closer to the Chinese border than Mexico City is to the Texas border.”
Many of these resources are key components of green energy such as solar panels, which China leads the world in producing. Waltz argued on the podcast that the CHIPS Act will enrich China and increase U.S. dependence on China.
“They [Washington] just had the CHIPS Act, critical minerals, China controls 90% of the world's lithium - all of those things that make a modern economy go, Afghanistan was sitting on a trillion dollars of critical minerals and rare earth,” Waltz said on the podcast. “I helped commission the U.S. Geological Survey back in '05 when we were looking at 'how can this country afford to eventually take care of itself?' Third largest copper reserves in the world, fifth-largest chromite, second largest lithium...massive, massive reserves of these critical minerals.”
The U.S. military had used Bagram Air Base for almost 20 years to target the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists after 9/11 until vacating the base overnight in July 2021, AP News reported.
“Guess who's sitting in Bagram Air Base now? A Chinese geological survey team that's going to go in and scoop all of that stuff up...On so many levels, it's just a strategic fiasco...The President just signed a bill to infuse $300 billion of your money into the Chinese economy that produces 90% of the world's solar panels, all the wind turbines, 90% of the lithium that you need to make the batteries,” Waltz said on the podcast. "The two key parts of their [the Chinese] strategy is, number one, to watch us bankrupt ourselves and number two, to control our supply chains, everything from our food supply to our energy supply, and we're just playing right into their hands.”
China dominates the global green energy industry, Forbes reported. The West’s green policies put the West at China’s mercy during the transition to renewable energy, David Zaikin of Key Elements Group in London, said.
China seeks global dominance because they recognize the importance of renewable energy. Solar energy dominance gives them an advantage over many other countries around the world, Jeff Ferry, chief economist for the Coalition for a Prosperous America in Washington said, Forbes reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported China supplied 80% of the rare earth minerals the United States imported in 2019.
Horizon Advisory co-founder Emily de La Bruyère told Mining Technology Chinese sources talk about leveraging its rare earth dominance against the United States.
Waltz served in the U.S. Army for more than 26 years, according to his Congressional bio. He completed multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa as a Green Beret. He worked in the Pentagon as a defense policy director, and later served as Vice President Dick Cheney's counterterrorism advisor.
