Placentia, CA – U.S. Representative Young Kim (CA-39) issued the following statement on President Joe Biden’s address regarding the situation in Afghanistan:
“The American people, U.S. troops, veterans, Gold Star families, as well as our allies and our adversaries, have all looked on as the Taliban quickly and effectively undermined the gains made by U.S. and Afghan military forces in Afghanistan in a matter of days.
“President Joe Biden’s rushed withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan without a plan to ensure stability in the region has created a national security and humanitarian crisis. As a result, we now have more US troops in the region than we had before the withdrawal and are scrambling to keep promises we made to the tens of thousands Afghan partners who helped us fight the Taliban.
“It is past time for actions – not excuses. While we will certainly have policy debates in the months to come – and I hope when Congress reconvenes we can work together to evaluate what went wrong and find bipartisan solutions to assert US influence over the Taliban and other terrorist groups – my immediate concern is that our country is projecting weakness and impotence to the rest of the world. We must ensure that Americans and our allies take our nation’s word seriously and know that promises made are promises kept. Unfortunately, if we leave Afghan partners and allies behind, we are sending the opposite message to them and nations around the world. We must do everything we can help evacuate U.S. citizens and our Afghan partners. We owe it to them to keep our word.
“As always, we are so grateful for our troops, veterans, their loved ones, and Gold Star families for their dedicated service, sacrifice and selflessness. As we deploy more troops to Kabul to secure the airport, I am rallying with our troops and praying for their safe return home. We are the land of the free because of the brave.”
