Lawmakers pressed the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan on Thursday about what it will take for the U.S. to end its assistance to the country that has struggled to defend itself for the past 14 years.
Gen. John Campbell, the commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, told members of the House Armed Services Committee that a “modest, continued investment” can ensure the homeland remains safe from another Sept. 11-like attack.
“We live in the world we have, maybe not the world we want, but the world we have,” Campbell said. “There are still those who want to do us harm.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blasted the general on a U.S. mission to train Afghans that has struggled to prepare the Afghans to stand on their own two feet.
“It’s pretty much been a failure,” Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., said bluntly.
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said that, at some point, Americans must pull out of the country, both to stop financial aide and any American loss of life, and asked Campbell to define what it will take to end the conflict.
“This thing has got to have an end to it. Is that when security forces say we don’t need any advising?” Jones said. “Can you give me some idea of how this thing is going to end?”
But Campbell said that there is going to be a risk of terrorism in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future, even once the Islamic State is defeated.
“If it’s not Daesh in two years, it’s going to be something else,” he said, using another name for the terrorist group. “If we think this is going to be cleared up in a couple years, we’re fooling ourselves.”
