The late Billy Graham was one of the most prominent Christian televangelists of the 20th century. Graham’s grandson, Edward, is a part of that legacy.
Prior to joining the family ministry, however, Edward Graham served in eight combat deployments as an army ranger within a special operation unit that conducted missions in Afghanistan.
“We were a small special operations unit that conducted counterterrorism missions, so we were responsible for a target set of high-value individuals that we would hunt down,” Graham told the Hammer and Nigel Show.
Graham said what’s unfolded in Afghanistan since the departure of U.S. troops was entirely predictable.
“We fought alongside the Afghan conventional army and they were completely inadequate, poorly trained, poorly resourced, but more importantly, poorly led,” he told Nigel. “Their leaders were just corrupt. And there were some great guys that really cared for their country, but we knew that the conventional army would fall within weeks [of a U.S. departure].
“Now, the Afghan special operations commandos were well trained by the Green Berets and the Rangers, so they are offensively capable, but they still needed us there to help them and to guide them along,” Graham explained. “So there was another way. I don’t wanna be in Afghanistan forever either, but this was not the right way to do this.”
Graham said the Biden administration should have left a small special operations contingency in Afghanistan to continue to training Afghan special operations and commandos.
“There was a way to do this with the right authorities to mow the grass, which means you, unfortunately, have to go in to kill certain people from time to time in certain key cities and other provinces,” said Graham. “but you would have kept harm from coming to Sharif, Kabul, and the border crossing points, which are needed for taxation in order to fund the government. And that might have been good enough, but we never should have pulled the rug out from underneath them like this.”
Graham said the Taliban is “the very definition of evil.”
“It’s hard to put into words or quantify how monstrous and brutal the Taliban can be to not only Afghanis but the American people who are still there as well. And the people trying to escape know exactly what’s coming: beheadings, murders because you’re a female that went to school and got educated, murdered because you’re a homosexual for what you believe – [the Taliban] hates everything that the West stand for,” said Graham. “I’ve watched these people for years and what they do to kids, what they do to women is pure evil.”
Graham told Nigel it will take much more than a military intervention in Afghanistan to turn things around.
“We’re beyond man -man put us into this situation. We need a miracle, and my hope and prayer are that God delivers us as a nation and delivers the people of Afghanistan. It’s going to take a miracle.”
Graham also discussed his international relief charity, Samaritan’s Purse, with Nigel.
Click the link below to hear Nigel’s full interview with Edward Graham.
https://omny.fm/shows/hammer-and-nigel-show/edward-graham-talks-afghanistan
