Kaine and Warner statement on Afghanistan
Tensions have been extremely high since the recent regime change in Afghanistan. The Taliban, a radical group that controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s, has regained control of the land. The siege comes shortly before the U.S completed its troop withdrawal from Afghanistan after a 20-year war.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), released the following statement on Afghanistan:
“What we are seeing unfold in Afghanistan is devastating. At this time, we must do everything we can to prioritize the evacuation of U.S. personnel, Afghan partners, journalists, women leaders, activists, human rights defenders, and others. I am in close communication with the Administration and our allies on the ground to ensure their safety and quick removal.”
“Keeping our nation safe is critically important. The U.S. went into Afghanistan in 2001 to defeat those who attacked the U.S. on 9/11, and 10 years later, we found and killed Osama bin Laden. We stayed an additional decade to help train Afghan security forces and create conditions for a more stable future in that country. While I believe it is now time to bring our troops home, we must continue working to maintain humanitarian and diplomatic support for Afghanistan to ensure the country does not again become a safe haven for al-Qaeda.”
U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the below statement on Afghanistan:
“The images from Afghanistan that we’ve seen in recent days are devastating.
“We went into Afghanistan to defeat al-Qa‘ida and eliminate their safe harbor after September 11, 2001. Two decades later, the price of our longest war has been tremendous. We’re on track to spend $2 trillion on a conflict that has cost 6,000 U.S. service members and contractors their lives and returned tens of thousands of our fellow Americans from the battlefield with wounds both visible and invisible. We owe a debt of gratitude to all those brave men and women who have served in Afghanistan, many of whom are experiencing renewed pain and grief today as they grapple with traumatic images out of Kabul, thoughts of their fellow service members, and fears for those alongside whom they fought.
“At this moment, our top priorities must be the safety of American diplomats and other citizens in Afghanistan, and the extraction of Afghans who are at greatest risk, including those who bravely fought alongside our forces since 2001. The world must know that the United States stands by her friends in times of need, and this is one of those times. We must do everything we can to secure the airport in Kabul, restore evacuation flights, and allow our trusted Afghan partners to find safe haven in the United States or elsewhere before it is too late. We also cannot lose sight of the reason we were there in the first place and must continue to stay focused on potential threats to the United States posed by terror groups like the Haqqani network, al-Qa‘ida, and ISIS.
“Intelligence officials have anticipated for years that in the absence of the U.S. military the Taliban would continue to make gains in Afghanistan. That is exactly what has happened as the Afghan National Security Forces proved unable or unwilling to defend against Taliban advances in Kabul and across the country. As the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I hope to work with the other committees of jurisdiction to ask tough but necessary questions about why we weren’t better prepared for a worst-case scenario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and security forces. We owe those answers to the American people and to all those who served and sacrificed so much.”
As a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, Senator Kaine has often emphasized the importance of protecting the Afghans who put themselves at risk to advance U.S. objectives. Senator Kaine has been a longtime supporter of the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which enables Afghans who risked their lives supporting the U.S. to escape dangers they face due to their service to our nation. Kaine is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Afghan Allies Protection Act, much of which was included in the $2.1 billion security spending package passed on July 29, 2021.