John Boehner blasts Obama’s Afghanistan strategy

Early warning signs in Afghanistan show that President Barack Obama’s withdrawal strategy there is already foundering, House Speaker John Boehner charged on Tuesday.

“Has President Obama not learned from his mistakes in Iraq?” the Ohio Republican asked in a statement.

The speaker’s office released a number of excerpts from news reports describing an increase in combat deaths in Afghanistan, areas of territory lost to the Taliban and the comparative weakness of the Afghan National Security Forces without American help. The U.S. troop pullout is premature, Boehner charged, and a “formal” end to the conflict does not mean it’s actually over.

Afghanistan could go the way of Iraq if the U.S. does not do enough to backstop Kabul against the Taliban and terrorists, he argued. Critics charge that Obama did not try hard enough to leave behind a garrison of about 10,000 troops in Iraq after the end of combat in 2011, leading to the collapse of Iraq’s military and the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  

“No one wants to see our military men and women in harm’s way, but as we’ve seen in Iraq with the rise of ISIL, arbitrary, political deadlines on war are rarely observed or honored by our terrorist enemies committed to enslaving religious minorities, raping women, beheading journalists and slaughtering Americans,” said the statement from Boehner’s office.  Read More at politico

John Boehner blasts Obama’s Afghanistan strategy