Mattis Ends Argument By Guaranteeing Congress Of One Thing If We Pull Out Of Afghanistan

The Defense Secretary warned against knee-jerk impulses to end America’s longest war.

Speaking with members of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned that the United States could expect a repeat of 9/11 if U.S. forces left the country before the situation stabilized.

Mattis also told Bacon that the Taliban has continued its alliance with al-Qaeda, which prompted the U.S. invasion of the central Asian country in 2001.

“We encouraged them [in 2001] to break with al-Qaeda. They were not a transnational terrorist group, the Taliban themselves, but they refused to do so, and so they chose to fight,” he said.

Mattis and President Trump have announced that they would increase the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, moving from a time-based strategy to a results-based strategy.