US President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Mike Waltz, a member of Congress and a retired Army colonel who served as a Green Beret, as his national security adviser, media reported.
Waltz has served in the US Army and National Guard for 27 years and has a history of fighting the Taliban.
He currently represents Florida in the US House of Representatives and is a prominent supporter of Donald Trump.
Mike Waltz, 50, has published his military and political experiences in a book titled "The Warrior Diplomat: The Battles of a Green Helmet: From Washington to Afghanistan."
Waltz has been a critic of the Biden administration's handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, describing the process as "shameful”.
He also told a congressional hearing in October last year that the Taliban had continued to kill and harass former Afghan soldiers.
In February last year, during a congressional hearing called by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US soldier criticised the former US envoy for Afghanistan peace who had said that the Taliban had succeeded in containing al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Waltz said that "relying on one terrorist group to destroy another terrorist group is dangerous and a big mistake".
Referring to the Taliban's punishment of Afghan citizens, Waltz said in December 2022 that women in Afghanistan have been oppressed, children have been radicalised, and another generation of terrorists is being recruited to attack the United States.
The US official told Fox News in September last year that al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, with the help of the Taliban government and US equipment, is once again reviving and realising bin Laden's "dream". Mike Waltz added that US troops will have to return to Afghanistan in the future and fight terrorism. "But not a single official in Joe Biden's administration resigned or was fired," he sarcastically wrote in a note on social media platform X.
Waltz is also a vocal critic of China and Beijing's activities in the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he called on Joe Biden to provide Ukraine with more weapons.
The US National Security Adviser is a powerful official in the US government who, unlike many senior government positions in the United States, does not require Senate confirmation.
