Lindsey Graham Is Wrong: It’s Long Past Time to Get Out of Afghanistan
My latest in PJ Media:
The occasionally courageous and insightful Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted Tuesday that if President Trump withdraws American troops from Afghanistan, “there will be another 9/11.” Sounding as tough as he ever does, Graham warned: “You may be tired of fighting radical Islam, but they’re not tired of fighting you.” But that’s not what getting out of Afghanistan would mean. If leaving American troops in Afghanistan until the end of time is the only way we can fight the global jihad, we’re done for.
Graham is ignoring the fact that we’re not really fighting “radical Islam” in Afghanistan as it is, and another 9/11 could happen while we are there. The former chief of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, was asked late last year what the U.S. should do in Afghanistan now. Here is McChrystal’s response:
I don’t know. I wish I did … If we pull out and people like al-Qaeda go back, it’s unacceptable for any political administration in the [United States]. It would just be disastrous, and it would be a pain for us. If we put more troops in there and we fight forever, that’s not a good outcome either. I’m not sure what [is] the right answer. My best suggestion is to keep a limited number of forces there and just kind of muddle along and see what we can do.
McChrystal is not alone. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, said much the same thing:
Were we not to put the pressure on Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other groups in the region we are putting on today, it is our assessment that, in a period of time their capability would reconstitute, and they have today the intent, and in the future, they would have the capability to do what we saw on 9/11.
Right. But the fact is that al-Qaeda and the Taliban and the Islamic State are in Afghanistan now, just biding their time until we leave. Are we going to stay there until the end of time, Senator Graham? Make Afghanistan the 51st state?
There is much more. Read the rest here.
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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. © All rights reserved.
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