Rep. Liz Cheney called on President Trump to reject a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan, arguing in an op-ed that it would be tantamount to losing the war to al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State.
“We should not withdraw U.S. forces based on a political timetable that grants concessions to the Taliban and allows the terrorists to maintain safe havens from which they can plan and train for future attacks in the West,” the representative from Wyoming, and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, wrote in the Washington Post.
The Trump Administration is negotiating the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, where they have been fighting a war since 2001, when her father served with President George W. Bush and the two were responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that were orchestrated by Afghanistan-based al Qaeda.
According to news reports, the United States is close to reaching a deal with the Taliban to withdraw about 4,000 U.S. troops in exchange for the Taliban pledging to renounce al Qaeda and block it from functioning in areas under Taliban control.
Cheney, in the Washington Post op-ed, argues the United States should not settle for the Taliban’s assurances.
“The Taliban harbored Osama bin Laden and his men while they plotted their attacks on the United States,” Cheney wrote. “The Taliban has never publicly disavowed al Qaeda. Instead, al Qaeda’s fighters are helping the Taliban resurrect its authoritarian Islamic Emirate. As a result, al Qaeda continues to view Afghanistan as a haven for its leadership.”
Cheney said the Trump administration should release the full details of the deal, including the terms of the Taliban’s counterterrorism pledge.
“If we are putting our security in the hands of the enemy who harbored al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks, the American people deserve to know why,” Cheney wrote.
Cheney and other Republicans have been warning the Trump administration to avoid withdrawing troops from Afghanistan without a deal that will prevent terrorist groups from regaining ground and they compared the deal to the Obama administration’s decision to pull troops out of Iraq, which critics say allowed ISIS to gain ground.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a pilot in the Air National Guard, on Wednesday backed Cheney’s call for Trump to hold off on a rapid troop withdrawal.
“Losing in Afghanistan would simply be a repeat of @BarackObama in #Iraq, maybe worse,” tweeted the Illinois Republican. “@realDonaldTrump please think long and hard before making the same decision.”
