Defense News By: Joe Gould 12/13/2019
As U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to cut American boots on the ground in Afghanistan, he owes the American people a clearer explanation for U.S. military’s activities there, the House Armed Services Committee’s top Republican said Thursday.
Trump, like former President Barack Obama, has not provided a “high-level explanation†of the Afghanistan mission or its goals, which has helped erode public support, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said on a C-SPAN “Newsmakers†program set to air Friday night.
“If you don’t hear that month after month, year after year, that starts to affect the way the American people see the mission, so I think they are owed that," the HASC ranking member said.
The comments came days after a blockbuster Washington Post report that the U.S. government across three White House administrations misled the public about failures in the Afghanistan war, often suggesting success where it didn’t exist. That report, which details internal frustrations with America’s ever-changing strategy, has fed calls to end the 18-year-old war.
More:
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/12/13/trump-needs-to-explain-afghan-mission-says-thornberry/
