Gabbard: Our Leaders ‘Lost Sight’ of the Mission in Afghanistan

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), a United States Army Reserve officer, on Sunday weighed in on the U.S. withdrawal out of Afghanistan.

According to Gabbard, the mission in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks was effective in defeating al-Qaeda. She added that what went wrong was the nation’s leaders “lost sight” of the mission there.

“Our mission to go into Afghanistan, initially, to go after al-Qaeda, the jihadist terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, declared war against us was justified,” Gabbard outlined on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Night in America.”

“We sent special forces in there who very expeditiously and effectively defeated al-Qaeda very quickly,” she continued. “What went wrong after that was when leaders in our country lost sight of that very direct and important mission and instead began to embark on regime change, wars and nation-building exercises. And as we have seen over last 20 years in Afghanistan, specifically, even senior leaders in our government across Democrat and Republican administrations did not know what your mission there was.”

Gabbard then warned of the danger she sees posed by Pakistan, which she noted supported the Taliban.

“Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal, so the issue that we’re seeing, the threat that we are facing, the danger there, given these alliances, given the ideology that is fueling them, should be a grave concern to our country,” she advised.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent