[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 122 (Tuesday, July 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4836-S4837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 3 months ago, President Biden announced 
his intention to completely withdraw U.S. forces from the ongoing fight 
against terrorists and terrorist enablers in Afghanistan. I said then 
this was a shortsighted decision, and sure enough--sure enough--a 
reckless rush for the exits is becoming a global embarrassment.
  Just take the reports that our forces slunk away from the 
strategically vital Bagram Air Base in the middle of the night without 
plan for our Afghan partners to secure the base or even to keep the 
electricity on. But President Biden remains defiant. He has rejected 
warnings that the government in Kabul will fall to the Taliban. He is 
ignoring the truth unfolding before our own eyes: Afghanistan is 
unraveling.
  Since April 13, the Taliban has retaken administrative districts all 
across the country at a truly alarming pace. With military victory in 
reach, the group is hardly even pretending to seek a negotiated 
solution. It has wasted no time dragging large swaths of Afghanistan 
back under its repression, but President Biden appears unmoved. He says 
he bears no responsibility for the plight of the Afghans who fought 
with us.
  Back in 2019, when his predecessor was contemplating a quick 
withdrawal from Syria, then-Candidate Biden called that notion ``the 
most shameful thing any president has done in modern history in terms 
of foreign policy.''
  Well, look where we are today. The Taliban is hunting down the U.S.-
trained pilots who helped defend the Afghan people. It has wiped out 
scores of special forces resisting its advance. As the Taliban moves 
toward threatening Kabul, the Biden administration seems to have no 
plan to efficiently process special visas for the Afghans who helped us 
and no plan to get those people safe passage to our Embassy or, for 
that matter, even out of the country.

[[Page S4837]]

  The dangers facing the Afghan people--especially, especially women 
and girls--are heartbreaking. The humanitarian crisis may well be 
historic. But this is also an awful, bungled mess from the perspective 
of our own national security. The President's own CIA Director told 
Senators this decision would be certain to inhibit our ability to 
collect intelligence. Gen. Frank McKenzie of Central Command confirmed 
this week, this very week, that intelligence collection was already 
suffering.
  The President's top advisers understand very well that the Taliban is 
capable of retaking control of Afghanistan in just a matter of months. 
This would allow al-Qaida to reconstitute. So analysts are debating not 
if, not whether, but when al-Qaida will again threaten the United 
States from Afghanistan.
  Just wait until we see Russia and China rushing into the void, 
exploiting our retreat to expand their power and influence in Central 
Asia. Just wait until the botched retreat and lingering threats end up 
requiring a large, ongoing presence of our military and surveillance 
forces in the region rather than freeing up resources for the Indo-
Pacific. Just wait until the Biden administration ends up consumed with 
this humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and its destabilizing 
effects rather than focusing on building coalitions to counter Chinese 
or Russian aggression.
  Yet, amid all this, President Biden isn't reconsidering. Instead, he 
is flooring it. The administration actually sped up the withdrawal so 
it can accomplish it even before the darkly ironic deadline of 
September 11.
  So I have forcefully opposed efforts by Presidents of both parties to 
cut and run from our work in Syria or Afghanistan. I have warned of the 
huge strategic price America would pay if this administration pretends 
that terrorists will play nicely with their political timeline. As one 
recent headline put it, ``We might be done with jihadis but they are 
not done with us.''
  President Biden and his team are desperate to duck hard questions 
about Afghanistan, but the American people deserve answers. They 
deserve to understand the risks of this trajectory and how the 
Commander in Chief plans to keep us safe against a terrorist enemy that 
his own senior advisers admit will be allowed to regroup thanks to the 
President's actions.
  I hope that, even in this Democratically controlled Congress, our 
national security committees will uphold their obligation to oversee 
this unfolding debacle and its implications. Ending our presence in 
Afghanistan will not end the terrorist war against us. Sadly, the 
opposite is likely to be true. This self-inflicted wound could very 
well make the struggle even more difficult and even more dangerous

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