Rep. Barbara Lee says 'there's no military solution' for Afghanistan
During an interview on MSNBC on Sunday, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., called the situation in Afghanistan “dire” and said “there’s no military solution” for the country.
Video Transcript
- Congresswoman Lee, as you know, the war in Afghanistan is the longest war in US history. Today, from your point of view, is it safe to say America has lost that war?
BARBARA LEE: What I'm going to say is this-- first of all, nice being with you-- is that our focus and priority has got to be now the safety and security of American citizens, our diplomats, the Afghans, our allies, so many people who supported the American operation there. And so we have to focus on the visas. We have to focus on women and children, the safety and security of everyone at this moment.
And I think it's a very dire situation. And this has got to be and it is an all-hands-on-deck operation, a whole government operation. And this is an example, though, that there is no military solution, unfortunately, in Afghanistan. We've been there 20 years.
We have spent over a trillion dollars. And we have trained over 300,000 of the Afghan forces. So I think the president is absolutely correct. The Secretary of State, Secretary Austin have laid this out. And it's very difficult.
It's very hard. This is a tragedy. And so we have to make sure that we focus and make a top priority getting people to safety immediately.
