Congressman Fred Upton says he can only hope the Afghans who helped the United States throughout the past 20 years of being in their country are able to get out safely after chaos erupted at Kabul’s airport Monday. He issued a statement the same night calling the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a debacle, and tells WSJM News it should have been planned better.
“The shutting down of the Bagram air base, which would have been a pivotal place for us be able to remove not only equipment but people and translators who have helped us, we walked out with no notice about a week ago,” Upton said. “That sent a signal to the Afghan government that we were gone, and now trying to do that same type of operation in a city of five, six million people, really doesn’t work very well.”
As far as whether it was time to leave Afghanistan, Upton said the die was cast when President Trump announced he wanted the troops out by May 1. However, he says proper conditions for a withdrawal weren’t arranged for the updated September deadline.
