Navy SEAL who killed bin Laden recalls his time in Afghanistan: 'We should've been out of there' years ago
'We should have been out of there in 2003,' Rob O'Neill tells 'Fox News Primetime'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Navy SEAL responsible for killing Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden reacted to the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan on "Fox News Primetime," reflecting on his deployment to the region in 2005.
"It’s one of those places Afghanistan, where if you haven’t been there, you wouldn’t believe people," Rob O'Neill said. " I mean, some of these people, not only do they not know how old they are, they don’t know what time is. It’s a different world. I have seen true poverty with children with no clothes playing in sewage. It’s up is down and down is up. We can never install Jeffersonian democracy there," he said "They don’t want it."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}O'Neill's comment followed a passionate monologue from Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who also served time in Afghanistan during a U.S. military deployment.
"Should we keep fighting this? Hell no," he said. Should we learn from it? We better. I feel terrible for the Afghani people, especially the women and girls. But it's their country now. We stayed too long," Hegseth said. "Our soldiers did all they could while our generals and politicians dithered for two decades. Our last job is to get our Afghan advisors and interpreters out now."
O'Neill emphasized that "some of the best people I have ever met in my life" were afghanis whom he encountered during his time abroad.
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But, he argued, "We should have been out of there in 2003. I was there in 2005. That’s when we rescued the lone survivor Mark Luttrell. There is a big difference between cities and valleys. They want their valleys."