Trump Tells Fox News he Wants to Exit Afghanistan
TTN
According to The Daily Caller:
President Donald Trump told Fox News host Tucker Carlson he would prefer “to just get out” of Afghanistan, but the fact that it is a “lab for terrorists” makes it difficult to withdraw completely.
During an interview that aired Monday night on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the president responded to Carlson’s question about “how much longer” U.S. troops would stay in the country.
“Well, I’ll tell you,” Trump said. “I’ve wanted to pull them out. And you know, I have pulled a lot out. We were at 16,000. We’re down to about 9,000, which a lot of people don’t know.”
President Trump does see a problem with leaving:
“I’ll tell you the problem is, look, I would like to just get out,” said Trump. “The problem is, it just seems to be a lab for terrorists. It seems — I call it the Harvard of terrorists. When you look at the World Trade Center, they were trained. They didn’t — by the way, they attacked the wrong country. They didn’t come from Iraq, all right. They came from various other countries. But they all formed in Afghanistan, and it’s probably because it’s at the base of so many countries, but they all formed and it’s rough mountains and you get a lot of — you know, you get a lot of good hiding places.”
A new poll from the Koch Institute shows that a majority of United States military vets want to see the U.S. end the involvement in Afghanistan.