Senators Blumenthal, Murphy say evacuation of US citizens from Afghanistan crucial

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy says it's important the U.S. not only evacuate our citizens from Afghanistan, but also the people who have helped Americans in the 20-year war.

News 12 Staff

Aug 16, 2021, 11:44 AM

Updated 1,146 days ago

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Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy says it's important the U.S. not only evacuate our citizens from Afghanistan, but also the people who have helped Americans in the 20-year war.
 "There's a humanitarian nightmare unfolding in Afghanistan that we have helped to create inadvertently. But now we have an obligation to help solve it by evacuating and protecting the people who have been at our side helping us - and our troops saving lives throughout this crisis," Blumenthal says.
"Our priority now needs to be evacuating American personnel and as many of our Afghan partners as humanly possible. I firmly believe that President Biden made the right decision by standing by the Trump administration's decision to bring our troops home and end the longest war in our nation's history," Murphy says.
He went on to say, "Our central mission in Afghanistan—to decimate al Qaeda—was completed long ago. We must maintain counter-terrorism capabilities to make sure al Qaeda in Afghanistan never again presents a threat to the United States. But our twenty year, trillion-plus-dollar.. nation-building campaign, crippled by design flaws, cannot continue."
The Taliban is a largely Sunni Islamist organization operating mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The group aims to impose its interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan and remove foreign influence from the country.