GOP Rep. Kinzinger: Afghanistan Drawdown Will Lead To ‘Major Consequences’

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a veteran of the Afghanistan War, criticized the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan as one that will lead to “major consequences” and stated that “the military is absolutely disheartened by this.”

Host Jim Sciutto asked, “[I]s America less safe today, with General Mattis’ departure, but also the decision to withdraw troops from Syria, and now to draw down troops from Afghanistan?”

Kinzinger responded, “Yes. … I think — does that mean tomorrow something bad’s going to happen? Hopefully not. But what it does mean is Syria now is going to be given over to the Russians, and they’re emboldened. It’s given to the Iranians. Assad’s emboldened. ISIS, which is not destroyed, is going to go recruit a whole bunch more people because they just vanquished the United States of America. The president who ran on being this real tough guy, that’s going to just destroy ISIS gave up, it feels like. And then with these rumors about Afghanistan, you know, it’s unbelievably — at a time when we’re supposed to be negotiating with the Taliban, that maybe he would signal withdrawal? That — I mean, anything you know about instruments of power and how diplomacy works, it doesn’t work by removing the military threat. … There’s going to be major consequences to this.”

He later added, “I’ll tell you, the military is absolutely disheartened by this. I mean, I’m hearing it from my friends, a lot of, what is the president thinking?”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett