President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw United States forces from Afghanistan after 20 years was ultimately the move that handed the country over to terrorist organizations, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney said Tuesday.
“If President Biden were serious about defending America from the threat of terror, he wouldn’t have surrendered to the terrorists and handed the Taliban, al Qaeda and ISIS an entire country from which they can plot and plan terror attacks against America,” she said on Twitter.
“You don’t end wars by surrendering,” she said. “You don’t secure America by leaving Americans behind enemy lines, betraying our allies, and empowering our enemies. This isn’t ending a war. It’s losing one.”
Addressing the nation on Tuesday, Biden said withdrawal from the country was the best available option and that it would have been just as messy if launched weeks earlier, according to the news agency Reuters. Earlier this month, the Taliban terrorist organization took control of the Afghan government.
Multiple people have been killed in the chaos in the country since the Taliban took control, including Wyoming Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, who was set to become a father in just a few weeks.
The war in Afghanistan saw more than 2,500 Americans and more than 240,000 Afghans killed in its two-decade duration. Many Afghans are fleeing to the United States, but Gov. Mark Gordon has stated he has no interest in accepting refugees into Wyoming.
Two Wyoming representatives publicly disagreed with the governor over the weekend, saying that Wyoming should have some type of refugee program to accept those displaced.
