McConnell: Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal plan ‘a grave mistake’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said a Biden administration plan to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September is a “grave mistake” that would abandon the allied global fight against terrorism.

“It is a retreat in the face of an enemy that has not yet been vanquished and abdication of American leadership,” McConnell said on Tuesday. “A reckless pullback like this would abandon our Afghan, regional, and NATO partners in a shared fight against terrorists that we have not yet won.”

There are about 2,500 troops remaining in Afghanistan and this fall will mark the 20th anniversary of the original invasion of the central Asian country following the attacks of Sept. 11th, 2001.

President Joe Biden acknowledged last month that his administration would miss a May deadline for troop removal that was forged by former President Donald Trump and the Taliban last year. The Biden plan would gradually remove troops beginning in May and finish by no later than September. The president is expected to formally unveil his decision on Wednesday.

McConnell noted that he opposed the Trump administration when it floated similar withdrawal options in Afghanistan and Syria and argued that progress had been evident on the ground.

“It did not have to unfold like this. Today in Afghanistan the fighting is borne almost exclusively by our local partners. We have successfully solicited more buy-in and more support from foreign partners as well,” McConnell said. “Our NATO allies have practically been begging the United States to stay by their side.”

But Biden has indicated he does not see a military solution to the problems that have plagued the country for more than two decades.

Late last year, Sen. Rand Paul held up approval of the National Defense Authorization Act because a provision added by GOP Rep. LIz Cheney made it more difficult for the president to reduce troop levels there without submitting government agency reports.

But most Republicans leaped to lambaste the drawdown. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina called it “a disaster in the making.”

“A full withdrawal from Afghanistan is dumber than dirt and devilishly dangerous. President Biden will have, in essence, cancelled an insurance policy against another 9/11,” Graham said.

Many liberals were quick to laud the decision. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, applauded Biden for “achieving an impossibility here in Washington: ending a forever war.”

But implementing the complete withdrawal over the next five months will pose its own challenges, especially if the situation on the ground changes or there is a terrorist attack tied to al-Qaeda.

“We’ve seen this movie before, multiple times,” McConnell noted, citing former President Barack Obama’s pained deliberations about whether to stay in the country. As vice president, Biden declared in 2012 that the U.S. would leave Afghanistan in 2014.

McConnell added, “Conflicts do not simply end. They are won or lost. America and American administrations must be in the business of winning. Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic terrorists have not yet been defeated.”