Sen. Murphy on Afghanistan: 'The longer we stay, the less stable the country is'

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., spoke on the “Skullduggery” podcast on April 13 in support of President Biden’s plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, citing the country's corrupt government and the realities of the Taliban’s resurgence.

Video Transcript

CHRIS MURPHY: Well, I don't think history will look very kindly at all the US participation in a 20-year long war. There is no argument that if the United States stayed another 10 to 15 years, it would lead to greater political stability. In fact, it seems that the longer we stay, the less stable the country is.

To be honest, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is not a threat to the United States in the way that it used to be. The threats that exist to the United States in the counterterrorism space are in other places. And we deserve to be able to shift our resources to the places where the real threats to our homeland actually present.

We have been in Afghanistan, trying to help the Afghan government stand up governance capacity for two decades. Some of our soldiers that are fighting force in Afghanistan weren't alive when this war began. And I just hate to say it, but the Afghan government hasn't lived up to their end of the bargain. That government is still rife with corruption. The military has been promising to get better and increase capabilities, and they have not.

And so at some point, the United States has to take no for an answer. And the Afghan government has had ample opportunity to be able to create the governance and security space such as to rob the Taliban of its operating oxygen. It has not done that, despite billions of in US assistance, despite hundreds of thousands of US troops being inside that country.