Dem Sen. Murphy: Part of Problem Is ‘We Have Twice as Many Afghan Partners’ to Evacuate Because We Stayed Too Long

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said the U.S. should focus on evacuating its closest partners from Afghanistan and he hopes we’re on pace to do so by August 31. Murphy also stated that part of the problem is that “We have twice as many Afghan partners we have to evacuate. Because we stayed in this war ten years longer than we should have.”

Murphy said, “Well, our focus needs, for the next seven days, to be on continuing to get out our closest partners. Now, remember, we are not going to evacuate every single Afghan who ever enrolled in their military. We are looking at our closest partners, those that are going to be most likely targeted for harm by the Taliban. But the president has said that we are on pace to be able to bring those closest partners out by the end of next week. I hope that to be true. But I also don’t want to let my Republican friends who cheerled this war for the last 20 years get away without assessing the long story that led us to this moment. We have twice as many Afghan partners we have to evacuate. Because we stayed in this war ten years longer than we should have. And so, when we do an accounting of this moment, Congress should also make sure to do a full review of how we got here over the last two decades.”

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