WASHINGTON — In response to President Obama declaring the War in Afghanistan over by the end of 2014, Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain told The Daily Caller that Iraq is “deteriorating” after Obama pulled out all U.S. troops.
McCain predicted that the U.S. may pay a “very heavy price” if Obama withdraws all forces in Afghanistan.
“Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan. This drawdown will continue and by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over,” Obama said in his State of the Union address.
McCain, the Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, criticized Obama’s strategy.
“He [Obama] got us completely out of Iraq, bragged about it during the campaign, and Iraq is unraveling. It’s now Iranian influence. Iranian aircraft are overflying Iraq with weapons from Russia, Assad,” McCain told TheDC.
“The whole place is deteriorating because we didn’t leave a residual force behind of any significant number,” he said. “He wanted out of Iraq, he got out of Iraq. He wants out of Afghanistan? We may pay a very, very heavy price.”
In Tuesday’s address, Obama also said his administration has kept Congress “fully informed” of their “durable legal” framework for counterterrorism. However, McCain said there’s “a lot” Congress has not heard from the Obama administration.
“We have kept Congress fully informed of our efforts,” Obama said in his address.
In response, McCain said, “I disagree obviously, and there are a lot things that have gone on that even the authorizing committees like the intelligence committee haven’t heard about.”
McCain argues that “the whole problem” is counterterrorism should be a Department of Defense operation, not an intelligence operation.
“The CIA is supposed to collect intelligence. The military is supposed to carry out military missions. Now we’ve got that upside down,” he told TheDC.