Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) argued the problem in Afghanistan stems from the United States staying there “too long.”
Paul told Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” that Biden’s handling of the withdrawal was “completely inept and incompetent.” According to the Kentucky Republican, the Afghans grew “complacent” as a result of Americans fighting their battles over the last 20 years.
“I think Biden did a terrible job in the withdrawal,” Paul declared. “So, no, I don’t think it wasn’t executed very well at all. But we did need to leave, and there has been a consensus for a decade or more to leave. So, the problem isn’t in leaving. The problem is that we stayed too long. So, the longer we stayed, the more the expectations were, but the more complacent the Afghans grew as we fought their battles. Year after year, we fought their battles.”
“We were encouraging that it was inevitable two months ago when everybody in Congress was saying, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a debacle. We must have all the good people in Afghanistan leave,’ instead of saying, why don’t we rally them to fight. … We’ve been working with them for 20 years, and they chose not to fight for their country.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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