Washington, D.C. — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan should not be rushed.
President Trump’s Administration negotiated an agreement in early 2020 that called for a withdrawal by May 1st of this year. This spring, President Biden said the withdrawal would happen by September 11th, but in July Biden moved up the timeline to the end of August.
Afghans being granted Special Immigrant Visas — SIVs — worked with the US government or the US military over the past two decades. Grassley says he believes the Pentagon should have come with a withdrawal plan that gradually flew Americans and allies out of Afghanistan.
Grassley says it was a big mistake for President Obama to release five Taliban prisoners from Cuba in a swap for an American hostage AND for President Trump to agree to a prisoner swap of five-thousand Taliban for about a thousand people the Taliban were holding.
Grassley, a Republican, voted against the Gulf War in 1991, but supported the resolution authorizing the Bush Administration’s push into Afghanistan after the September 11th attacks.
