VOA Exclusive: Former CENTCOM Commanders Say the US Not Safer Following Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan
August 23, 2022 0:49 AM
WASHINGTON —
The United States is not safer following the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and President Donald Trump's and President Joe Biden's determination to withdraw all U.S. forces from there led to Kabul's fall, according to the last commanders to oversee a U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Retired General Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2019-2022, and retired General Joseph Votel, the head of CENTCOM from 2016-2019, spoke exclusively to VOA on Monday about the U.S. and NATO's nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan.
"I do not believe we are safer as a result of our withdrawal from Afghanistan," McKenzie, who advised American presidents to keep a minimum of 2,500 U.S. troops in the country, told VOA.
"There's a lot that we don't know about the organizations, the terrorist organizations that are left on the ground," Votel added. "I don't think we're more stable or more safe. I think Afghanistan is more unstable, and as a result, that this region is more unstable."
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