U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) says President’s Trump’s order yesterday to pull half of America’s 14,000 troops out of Afghanistan could lead to another 9/11 terror attack. It is rare for any Republican to voice disagreement with President Trump, but after Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis resigned Thursday in protest of Trump’s foreign policy, some on the right are finally beginning to speak out.
Congressman Banks is a decorated Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan, and visited there in November. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee and is no moderate: he voted for wall funding after urging Trump to veto any stopgap bill without it.
“When I went back last month it was clear that the threat in Afghanistan has evolved. The rise of ISIS-K in Afghanistan poses a much more serious threat than maybe we’ve seen since 9/11.”
Pulling out of Afghanistan would be turning the country over to ISIS-K, he warns, saying the terror group poses “a much more significant threat to the homeland.”
He says he’s “more concerned today than ever before” about the threat ISIS-K poses.
CNN’s John Berman confirmed what Rep. Banks was saying.
“You think if the United States reduces its presence in Afghanistan by as much as we learned the President is asking for, you think it increases the chances of a 9/11-style attack?”
“I think that it very much could,” Rep. Banks replied, “because of the rise of ISIS-K in Afghanistan today. “Now is not the time to pull back troops.”
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