Top US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said that Washington may be “going back into Afghanistan” in the future, according to the BBC.
“We’ll have to [go back to Afghanistan] because the [terror] threat will be so large,” he said in an interview with the BBC on HARDtalk.
The Taliban “have a view of the world that is not in sync with modern times” and will impose their harsh laws on Afghans, Graham said. When they ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban imposed a strict interpretation of Sharia law – including banning women from public spaces and preventing girls from attending schools – and brutalized minorities, such as Hazaras.
During that time, Afghanistan became a sanctuary for al-Qaeda militants who were behind the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City.
The Republican senator said history would likely repeat itself since the extremist group will probably provide a “safe haven to al-Qaeda who has ambitions to drive us out of the Mideast at large and attack us because of our way of life.”
“We will be going back into Afghanistan as we went back into Iraq and Syria.”
“What’s going to happen over time is you’re going to see the resistance [against the Taliban in Afghanistan] rise, ISIS will come after the Taliban large and the entire country is going to fracture in the next year, creating a perfect storm for western interest to be attacked,” he said.
After almost 20 years, the US pulled its troops out of Afghanistan and the entire nation fell into the hands of the Taliban just a few days later.
The last batch of US troops left Afghanistan on August 30, leaving many behind. Efforts to evacuate thousands were underway before that, however many did not make the cut and were consequently left behind.