Rand Paul: 'Ludicrous' to call a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Syria 'precipitous'
Sen.
Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Thursday it was "ludicrous" for Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to call taking troops out of Syria and Afghanistan “precipitous.”
“To call it a precipitous withdrawal after 17 years is ludicrous,” Paul said on Fox News. “We’ve been there 17 years.”
The libertarian-leaning lawmaker said the U.S. had secured a victory in Afghanistan because it “got bin Laden” and “disrupted the people who attacked us.”
He argued that the money spent on the war could be better spent domestically, including on a border wall.
The U.S. has been leading an international coalition against ISIS in Syria since 2014, while the war in Afghanistan began in late 2001.
Senators are planning to vote Thursday afternoon on an amendment sponsored by McConnell that warns “the precipitous withdrawal” of U.S. forces from Syria and Afghanistan “could put at risk hard-won gains and United States national security.”
The measure is meant as
a rebuke of the Trump administration, with GOP lawmakers concerned over
President Trump's reluctance to listen to top military and intelligence advisers.
The Trump administration instructed the military to begin removing troops from Afghanistan, two officials told The New York Times last month, though the White House
contradicted that report.
The U.S. and the Taliban are coming closer to an agreement that could include withdrawing troops,
The Washington Post reported Monday.
“It would recognize the danger of a precipitous withdrawal from either conflict and highlight the need for diplomatic engagement and political solutions to the underlying conflicts in Syria and Afghanistan," McConnell
said of his resolution earlier this week.
"We are the leader of the free world, and it’s incumbent upon the United Stares to lead, to maintain a global coalition against terror and to stand with our partners engaged in a daily fight against terrorists," he added.
McConnell will challenge Trump on Syria, Afghanistan troop withdrawals
By
Bob Fredericks
January 31, 2019 | 12:58pm |
Updated
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Sen. Mitch McConnell will flex his foreign policy muscles Thursday and challenge President
Trump’s decision to bug out of Syria and cut the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan by half.
The Senate majority leader plans to introduce an amendment to the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act, which affirms the US commitment to Israeli security, deepens ties with Jordan and holds those responsible for crimes against Syrian civilians accountable.
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McConnell pushes back against Syria, Afghanistan troop withdrawl
“My amendment to S.1 would allow Senators to go on the record about what the United States should be doing in Syria and Afghanistan. ISIS and al Qaeda have yet to be defeated and American national security interests require continued commitment to our missions there,”
McConnell tweeted Thursday morning.
That
puts him at odds with the commander-in-chief, who said that ISIS had been defeated when he abruptly announced pulling troops from Syria, a decision that prompted Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to quit in frustration.
The Kentucky lawmaker, who normally defers to Trump on most issues, scheduled the Senate vote for later Thursday, and a number of other Republicans have indicated that they are on board.
He also stressed the importance of coordination between the White House and Congress to develop long-term strategies in both nations, “including a thorough accounting of the risks of withdrawing too hastily.”
McConnell’s positions on ISIS and Afghanistan mirror those of the US intelligence community.
Director of National Security Dan Coats, appearing with CIA Director Gina Haspel and FBI chief Christopher Wray, told a Senate panel Tuesday that ISIS remained a dire worldwide threat, and
contradicted the president’s foreign policy views on Iran, North Korea and Russian election meddling.
An enraged Trump later slammed Coats, and tweeted that the 17 US intelligence agencies he oversees were “naive,” “wrong,” and “should go back to school.”
