WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy(D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee onNear East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, on Wednesday delivered remarks on the U.S. Senate floor to discuss the Bidenadministration’s announcement that all U.S.forces will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.

“After twenty years ofwar and hand wringing about when the right time is to leave, we have toacknowledge some basic truths: our military presence in Afghanistan is notcreating the conditions necessary to eradicate the Taliban nor the conditionsnecessary to create a fully functional Afghan military or government,” said Murphy.

“In fact, what began as a vital mission to eliminatethe threat of those who attacked us on September 11 has now become a symbol ofnearly everything wrong with American foreign policy,” Murphy added. “Our armed presence in Afghanistanepitomizes this hubristic myth around the power of U.S. troops – that they cancompletely dismantle terrorist networks by force, install and cultivate astable democratic government, and eliminate rampant corruption and illegal drugcultivation.”

On the billions ofdollars spent and lost to corruption, Murphy said: “[T]hebillions upon billions of dollars that are pumped into the Afghan economy byU.S. taxpayers often never find their way to actually helping the people ofthat country. Too much of our aid has been siphoned off by local leaders and,unintentionally, we have helped establish a system of corruption that became sopervasive and so predatory that people have frankly become less resistant toTaliban inroads.”

On the potential consequences of our withdrawal, Murphy said: “When we withdraw, there’s a real possibility that the situation in Afghanistan gets worse. It’s likely that fighting between the Afghan governmen tand the Taliban escalates. At that point, either the Afghan government will have to lead the fight without the crutch of American support, or the government could collapse. But would this dynamic be any different if we stayed another five years, or even another twenty years? There is simply no evidence to suggest it would. After twenty years and billions of investment in the Afghan government, the onus is on them to get their act together and earn the support of their people.”

Murphy concluded: “We spend moremoney than any other nation in the world on security, but even given thegargantuan size of our global military footprint, we cannot, and should not, beeverywhere. We need to make choices, and right now, it is fantasy, not reality,that undergirds an argument to stay in Afghanistan for another ten years,another five years, or another year. A big part of being president is makingtough choices, and today President Biden has made the right one to end thiswar.”

Murphy released a statement on Tuesday applauding the decision to bring American troopshome.

A full transcript of Murphy’s remarks can be foundbelow:

“There’s a saying about Afghanistan, that we’ve turnedthe corner toward victory so many times that we’re spinning in circles. Duringthe beginning of my time in Congress, I went to Afghanistan to visit our troopsand military leadership about every two years. And each time I went, I was metwith a new capable, impressive general, who had just started his yearlong tour,who told me the last general did it wrong and this time everything was gonna bedifferent.

“And I remember coming back from my third trip toAfghanistan, I think it was 2011, convinced that it was time to leave. Theprimary mission had been accomplished. Within a few years of our invasion, AlQaeda in Afghanistan had been reduced to a shell of its former self, and we hadreally shifted to a new mission – nation building. At the outset, there wasreason for us to stay and engage in that mission and work with the new Afghangovernment to help get it on its own feet.

“But by 2011, that mission had, for all intents and purposes, becomea permanent one. And now, after twenty years of war and hand wringing aboutwhen the right time is to leave, we have to acknowledge some basic truths: ourmilitary presence in Afghanistan is not creating the conditions necessary toeradicate the Taliban nor the conditions necessary to create a fully functionalAfghan military or government. In fact, the facts on the ground would tell youthe opposite is true – the longer we stay, the more powerful the Talibanbecomes and the less willing the Afghan government appears to be to make thehard choices to stand on their own. We can pretend that another year is goingto change this, but it won’t.

“’Just a little more time.’ That’s become the rinseand repeat phrase of the Afghanistan hawks. But to stay any longer is really,let’s be honest, a decision to stay forever. And that is something that theAmericans people do not support.

“I want to tell you one story from my trip toAfghanistan in 2011 that confirmed my belief that something was very wrongabout our policy there. I went with a bipartisan delegation, I was in the House[of Representatives] at the time. We visited a far-off province in westernAfghanistan, a small town called Parmakan. And we were there to visit a groupof army commandos who toured us around this village. They were protecting thefarmers in this village from Taliban attack.

“And they attested to us that the attacks had largelystopped, and in the place of those attacks had matured a commerce between theTaliban forces that surrounded the village and the farmers of the village. Andas we walked around this village, we made our way through fields of thesebeautiful, beautiful colorful flowers. And I turned to my colleague next to meand I asked him if he had a sense as to what this crop was, and he said ‘Ithink I do but let’s confirm.’ So we asked one of the village elders what theywere harvesting in these fields. ‘Poppy,’ he told us. Our U.S. military forceswere protecting the poppy trade in this Western province of Afghanistan. Infact, protecting the ability of the Taliban to come in and purchase that poppyin order to fuel that insurgency that we were fighting. 

“Our troops were literally being utilized to protectthe revenue source of our enemy. And so no wonder our policy in Afghanistan appearscircular. In many ways, it is, and it has been for a very long time.

“But even for those who disagree with me and contestthat our presence there has actually helped facilitate the survival of theTaliban, what evidence is there that staying for another few years is going tomake the key difference? The American war in Afghanistan is nearly 20 yearsold. It’s the longest war in American history, outlasting the Civil War, theSpanish-?American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined.

“The U.S. and otherinternational donors have invested an extraordinary amount of money and effortand blood to help stand up a functioning Afghan government and civil society.And yet, that government has failed to get widespread support from the Afghanpeople. There are many reasons for this, but there’s one big one: corruption.And the billions upon billions of dollars that are pumped into the Afghaneconomy by U.S. taxpayers often never find their way to actually helping thepeople of that country. Too much of our aid has been siphoned off by localleaders and, unintentionally, we have helped establish a system of corruptionthat became so pervasive and so predatory that people have frankly become lessresistant to Taliban inroads.

“Without a functioningpolice force, local governors, they establish their own militias, and themafia-style system that’s developed has led to this vast drug traffickingnetwork fueled by corruption and that poppy production I talked about. This hasdistorted Afghanistan’s economy and frankly neutralized a lot of our economicaid. And yet the United States, often, over the course of the last twentyyears, has tolerated these warlords, these drug traffickers, and these corruptdefense contractors inside Afghanistan because we considered the enemy of ourenemy to be our friend. Our entire mission there has often been built on aself-defeating strategy.

“In fact, what began as a vital mission to eliminatethe threat of those who attacked us on September 11th has now, in some ways,become a symbol of nearly everything wrong with American foreign policy. Ourarmed presence in Afghanistan epitomizes this hubristic myth around the powerof U.S. troops abroad – that they can completely dismantle terrorist networksby force, install and cultivate a stable democratic government, and eliminaterampant corruption and illegal drug cultivation.

“Two decades and nearly two trillion dollars ofspending later, we have seen the limitations of those fantastical assumptions.Our generals have offered PowerPoint presentation after PowerPoint presentationdetailing how this time it’s going to be different. But it never is. Becausethe failure really isn’t in the execution – the failure has been in the design.A few thousand troops, and that’s what we have there today, cannot deliversecurity and political stability to a complex, multicultural, multilingualnation, long resistant to centralized rule on the other side of the world. Wewere right to pursue the Al Qaeda terrorists that attacked us on September11th. But that mission is completed. And it’s time to face facts about thelimitations of American military power in Afghanistan, and bring our troopshome.

“Now, let’s be clear, Al Qaeda still wants to harm theUnited States, but the threat that they pose today is nowhere near what it was20 years ago, when they attacked our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, bombedthe U.S.S. Cole, and killed thousands of Americans on September 11th.

“Intelligence estimates tell us that, in Afghanistan,there may be only 200, 300, maybe 400 Al Qaeda members total. The organizationis no longer capable of planning large scale attacks against the United States.That’s what our intelligence estimates tell us. And frankly, there are far moreAl Qaeda members today in other countries, like Yemen. Does that mean we shouldalso plant huge numbers of U.S. troops in every place where there are securityvacuums to eliminate the terrorist threat from those countries? Of course not.After two decades of the war on terror, we have made a ton of mistakes, but wehave also gotten a lot better in terms of our intelligence capabilities and ourability to strike against a terrorist threat absent a huge in-country presence.Why not apply that lesson learned to Afghanistan?

“To their credit, the Trump administration was rightto finally call it like it is, and state that the U.S. presence in Afghanistancouldn’t and shouldn’t continue forever. But as usual, the Trump team didn’tput in the work to ensure we could do this responsibly by their deadline of May1st. So a four month extension announced by President Biden, that will give usthe space needed - not to magically accomplish what we haven’t been able to doin 20 years - but to realistically chart out the operational plans for pullingout the 2,500 troops that we still have there.

“Now finally, I want to be honest—when we withdraw,there is a real possibility that the situation in Afghanistan is gonna getworse. It is likely that fighting between the Afghan government and the Talibanescalates. At that point, either the Afghan government will have to lead thefight without the crutch of American support, or the government could collapse.But this is the key point. That has been the dynamic for the last fifteenyears, and it is going to continue to be the dynamic for the next fifteenyears. It wouldn't be any different if we stayed another five years, another 20years, or another year. There is simply no evidence to suggest that things aregoing to change. After 20 years and billions of dollars of investment in theAfghan government, the onus has to be on them to get their act together andearn the support of the people.

“And one last point. Being in Afghanistan is a choice.A choice to not focus on other theatres that present more serious threats tointernational norms, global stability, and American security. It bogs Americadown, having 2,500 troops there and thousands more contractors and billions ofdollars, it bogs us down in a theater that frankly just matters less to ustoday than it did years ago. Just within the last few days, China has levelednew threats to the territorial integrity of its neighbors. Russia is amassingthousands of troops on the border of Ukraine, and there are new worries arisingabout a potential attack on NATO member states. And, remember,counter-terrorism officials, and our daily news feed, remind us that the mostserious threat to American today is actually not from foreign terrorist organizations,but from domestic groups.

“We spend more money than any other nation in theworld on security, but even given the gargantuan size of our global militaryfootprint, we cannot, and should not, be everywhere. We need to make choicesevery now and again, and right now, it is fantasy, not reality, that undergirdsan argument to stay in Afghanistan for another ten years, or five years, oreven another year. A big part of being president is making tough choices, andtoday President Biden has made the right one to end this war.”

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