Kabul (BNA) US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says President Joe Biden is “paving the way for another 9/11” by preparing to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday night, Graham said that Biden’s plans would spark the reemergence of terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Graham’s remarks came just hours after a senior US official said Biden is likely to announce Wednesday that he will withdraw all troops from the country by September 11 – the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
“To all of you who are listening, you remember where you were at on September 11, 2001,” Graham said. “Our military told President Biden that if you withdraw all of our forces, Al Qaeda and ISIS will come roaring back, Afghanistan will disintegrate into civil war. And we can avoid all of that by having 3,000-5,000 American forces making sure that ISIS and Al Qaeda never come back to hurt us. He rejected that advice,” Graham said on Fox News.
He also said: “Afghanistan is going to deteriorate pretty rapidly, Al Qaeda and ISIS are going to come back.” “He’s paving the way for another 9/11. I think Joe Biden on foreign policy has been completely incompetent and destabilizing,” Graham said.
News Week reported that in a statement issued shortly before his Fox News appearance, Graham called reports of the complete Afghanistan troop withdrawal “dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous,” arguing that Biden had “canceled an insurance policy against another 9/11.”
News Week also reported that in addition to Graham and a selection of other lawmakers, some experts and military officials have urged Biden to not immediately withdraw the troops so as to allow time for a peace deal to take place between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
