Senator Warns, 'We're Going to Leave Our Countrymen Behind' in Afghanistan Unless Biden Changes Course
Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton is warning that if President Joe Biden keeps to his deadline of leaving Afghanistan by the end of August, Americans are going to be left in danger.
“If President Biden leaves Afghanistan by August 31, he risks leaving American citizens behind,” Cotton wrote in a Twitter post Monday.
If President Biden leaves Afghanistan by August 31, he risks leaving American citizens behind. pic.twitter.com/upeQ8ThNqu
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 23, 2021
“I think that President Biden is timid and fearful of the Taliban,” Cotton said during a “Fox & Friends” interview on Monday he posted with the tweet.
“Frankly, with Nancy Pelosi calling the House back today to vote on their $3.5 trillion budget, I also think they also just want this problem to go away. They want it off the front pages so they can talk about their reckless spending plan,” he added.
“But that means that we’re at risk of leaving thousands of Americans behind Taliban lines. Because if we’re going to be out by Aug. 31, which is just a week from tomorrow, that means that the military is going to have to start rolling up shop before then and we’re going to leave our countrymen behind.”
The senator also criticized Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s statements regarding the Taliban.
“I saw that the secretary of state said yesterday that we have to accept the reality that the Taliban is in control of Kabul. We don’t have to accept that. The Taliban is in control of Kabul until the United States says, ‘we are in control of Kabul,'” Cotton said.
“And if they want to attack our people at that airport, then we have more than enough combat power in the United States military to fight back and destroy those attacks.”
Cotton, himself a combat veteran of Afghanistan and Irag, has been one of the GOP’s most outspoken critics of the administration’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis.
On Wednesday, he blasted U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield for declaring that the U.N. Security Council expects the Taliban to “respect women’s rights.”
“This can’t be real,” Cotton tweeted with a CNN video featuring Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks from Tuesday night, highlighting a “very strongly worded press statement” issued by the U.N. body informing the Taliban that the Security Council expects Afghanistan’s new rulers to “respect human rights, including the rights of women and girls.”
“We have also indicated they have to be respectful of humanitarian law,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
This can’t be real. https://t.co/SnXcJLKty4
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 18, 2021
The senator then tagged the ambassador in another tweet, saying, “Hey @USAmbUN, see below.”
The link included an article titled, “Taliban kill woman for not wearing burqa on same day it vows to honor women’s rights.”
Hey @USAmbUN, see below. https://t.co/R94U8ydndX
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 18, 2021
According to the report published Tuesday by the New York Post, “A photo emerged of a woman in Takhar province lying in a pool of blood, with loved ones crouched around her, after she was killed by insurgents for being in public without a head covering.”
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