President Joe Biden kept his promise to the Taliban to have troops out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31, but broke his promise to Americans in Afghanistan that he would keep the United States in Afghanistan until they got out and it's time to demand answers, Sen. Tom Cotton said after the announcement that the last U.S. troops stationed at the Kabul airport had departed.
"Now that all troops are out of Afghanistan, it is the time to demand answers (and) to hold accountable all the officials who created the terrible conditions that we’ve seen in Afghanistan over the past several weeks," the Arkansas Republican told Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle." "Some of these things are very simple questions with knowable answers."
Many of those questions concern the decision to close Bagram Air Base back in July, and those questions shouldn't be hard to answer, said Cotton.
"What did the military recommend to Joe Biden about Bagram Air Base?" Cotton said. "Who decided to close Bagram Air Base? What were the arbitrary troop numbers that were capped at the end that led to the closing of Bagram Air Base?"
The answers to those questions are "sitting on a piece of paper somewhere in the Pentagon or the White House," and it is time that members of Congress demand to know what happened, Cotton insisted.
He also called for "rigorous oversight" when it comes to resettling Afghan refugees in the United States.
"We all want to protect and welcome those Afghans who served alongside our service members," said Cotton. "We’ve heard from so many people in my office — service members and veterans — who vouch, personally, for their translator or their interpreter."
However, more than 125,000 Afghans were evacuated in recent days and many of them had "very little if any connection" to those who helped the U.S. military, said Cotton.
"I’m glad they’re out of the Taliban’s grips, but they have to qualify under American law before we admit them into this country," the senator said. "They cannot be a threat to this country."
He pointed out that the Trump administration kept Syrian refugees in Jordan, and the same thing may need to happen to Afghan refugees now in Qatar, Turkey, Albania, and other countries.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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