WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States should continue a residual military presence in Afghanistan, if it wants to maintain the progress achieved by US armed forces in previous years, Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee US Senator John McCain said in an opening statement at a Committee hearing.
The Senator urged President Obama to avoid repeating mistakes from Iraq by leaving Afghanistan too quickly.
“If the President repeats his mistakes from Iraq, we can expect a similar disaster in Afghanistan: growing instability, terrorist safe havens, horrific human rights abuses, the rapid dissolution of the hard-won gains that our men and women in uniform purchased as such high cost, and ultimately, direct threats to the United States,” McCain said.
A withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan was first announced in May 2014. In December 2014, the drawdown schedule was adjusted for the first time.
US military officials decided to keep 10,800 soldiers in Afghanistan by early 2015, while the previous target was to retain less than 10,000 soldiers by the end of NATO’s 14-year combat mission on December 31, 2014.
