US senators warn against further troop cuts in Afghanistan
The international military mission in Afghanistan will fail if troop levels are reduced further, with potentially dangerous repercussions for the rest of the world, a delegation of US lawmakers warned during a visit to Kabul on July 4.
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Fifteen years after an American-led operation toppled the Taliban in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Barack Obama is considering whether to maintain the current level of 9,800 US troops or reduce it to 5,500 by the end of the year, as current plans call for.
"I cannot guarantee success if we keep 9,800, but I can ensure you failure if we go to 5,500," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters in Kabul.
"I will have a hard time supporting our continued presence here as it's not fair to those left behind... They just can't do the job. If we go to 5,500 this place will fall apart, quickly."
Graham joined US senators John McCain, Benjamin Sasse, and Joe Donnelly in a visit timed so the bipartisan delegation could visit with troops during the Independence Day holiday.
The Obama administration should decide on troop levels "sooner rather than later," McCain said, arguing that reducing the number of troops could lead to a repeat of the disaster in Iraq, where Islamic State militants seized major cities and wide swathes of territory.
