Political Quotes

“Mr. President and my colleagues, there is a saying about Afghanistan: that we have turned the corner toward victory so many times that we are spinning in circles. During the beginning of my time in Congress, I went to Afghanistan to visit our troops and military leadership about every 2 years. Each time I went, I was met by a new, capable, impressive general who had just started his yearlong tour, who told me that the last general did it wrong and that, this time, everything was going to be different. I remember coming back from my third trip to Afghanistan--I think it was in 2011--convinced that it was time to leave. The primary mission had been accomplished. Within a few years of our invasion, al-Qaida in Afghanistan had been reduced to a shell of its former self, and we had really shifted to a new mission: nation-building. At the outset, there was reason for us to stay and engage in that mission and to work with the new Afghan Government to help get it on its own feet, but, by 2011, that mission had, for all intents and purposes, become a permanent one. Now, after 20 years of war and handwringing about when the right time is to leave, we have to acknowledge some basic truths: Our military presence in Afghanistan is not creating the conditions necessary to eradicate the Taliban or the conditions necessary to create a fully functional Afghan military or government.…”