Sen. Dan Sullivan, in a Facebook Live interview with Must Read Alaska, said Sunday that veterans who fought the Taliban in Afghanistan and Gold Star families of fallen warriors should know the 20-year war was fought to protect America from attacks like the one on Sept. 11, 2001. And that it was effective in doing so.
Sullivan, who has been to Afghanistan as a Marine, in service as a senior member of the George W. Bush Administration, and as a senator, reminded viewers that the United States got involved in the war on terror after 9-11. Keeping the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Isis, and others in the loose network of terror organizations fighting in Afghanistan, made it so they didn’t have time or resources to export terrorism, as they had on 9-11.
“Very importantly and a huge problem from the United States’ perspective, it wasn’t just the Taliban but Afghanistan became a safe haven for international terrorists, particularly Al Qaeda. So that’s where Al Qaeda did its planning, all its training, and all its operations in preparation for the 9-11 attacks,” Sullivan said.
“So that, from our perspective, put Afghanistan, particularly after that horrific day 20 years ago, almost to the date now, when that happened Afghanistan became the focus of our foreign policy for really the last 20 years,” he said.
“It was the Taliban in control but it was al Qaeda that was the violent extremist organization that had the territory that the Taliban were allies with them, and after 9-11 we decided that we were not going to tolerate that any more,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan, who lost a good friend who was on a mission to rescue Navy SEALS in Afghanistan, said America hasn’t been hit with a major terrorist action since 9-11.
“And if you remember, and I remember very well, right after 911, there was so much intel that we thought we were going to get hit again and again and again. And we didn’t know. In my view there is one major reason why we didn’t get hit again. It’s because we went on offense. We had brave American men and women who volunteered and went over and took the fight to them,” he said.
“The fact that we were over there made it, in my view, that they weren’t over here in our cities,” Sullivan said.
But the way the exit from Afghanistan has been conducted by the Biden Administration has clearly shocked the nation, and Sullivan is concerned for not only Americans in the country, but the thousands of allies who helped keep the Taliban controlled.
“This is a shameful, stunning, horrible day that’s going on right now, and I think President Biden owns this.
When the black flag of the Taliban is going to be raised over the American embassy — I hope that doesn’t happen, but I think its going to happen soon — that image, he’s going to own. Forever.”
Sullivan said he thought the nation needs to hear from the president, who has been holed up at Camp David and has made no statement to Americans about the dire situation in Kabul.
View the entire interview with Sen. Sullivan at this link:
President Biden has nothing on his schedule for Monday, and his Press Secretary Jen Psaki is on vacation Aug. 15-22.
You voted to certify an obviously stolen election, nobody cares what
You say or think.
Mongo, take a deep breath. Now, you should know by now the elections were not stolen. It has been shown by multiple audits (not the fake, so-called forensic audits foisted on the people of AZ, but real, certifiable audits) that these were the fairest, most accurate elections ever. I mean, EVERYONE was watching. How could someone pull a fast one with everyone watching?
If you don’t believe that, how do you reconcile the many Repub. victories in numerous state and local elections? Accept it. The people wanted Trump gone, but not necessarily everyone else.
Sadly. There will still be a price to pay.
Greg R. “The people wanted Trump gone, “who are these people? The ones who stop vote counts in 5 states at the same time? Those people? Please explain this to us Greg R. Trump is leading, on his way to a major victory and then suddenly all is obscured… yes ” the people” . Honestly Greg, how duped do you have to be to not question , at least a little?
The families should know their fallen ones fought a war for all Sullivan spoke of at first…then with mission creep it became something else. Contractors became millionaires, bureaucrats empowered and entrenched, a trillion dollars wasted…once Bin Laden was terminated we should have left. Another pointless war. Iraq was almost as bad…I know this all too well. Semper Fi to all my buddies who fell there and afterwards to their demons at home.
Thank You Top, God Bless You for honoring the truth. I agree ?.
Dan you are shameless you should be censured for what you have done to all citizens. Red faced Dan the big time lie in man. Do you think we are children sir? Resign your post immediately. Mark Begich had more accomplishments sir. List your accomplishments sir since your dirty deeds, all it’s been is mile long bla bla letters, list them or resign. Sell out. Boooooooooooooooooooo to you sir.
18 April 2021:
« Getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do. I planned to withdraw on May 1st and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible. »
—Former President Donald Trump
2-3 July 2021 poll:
73% of registered voters support removing US troops from Afghanistan
All the past 5 presidents representing BOTH parties, Republicans AND Democrats, own this « shameful, stunning, horrible day », Senator Sullivan!
Dear Suzanne-
I don’t want sympathy, I want accountability. Specifically, from our congressional delegation and especially from Senator Sullivan.
The Taliban has thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan civilians bottled up on a runway tarmac in Kabul. If they (the Taliban) wanted, they could kill more US personnel right now than have died in 20 years of war in that country. (This is because they have fire control over the airport and can effectively put us in a mass casualty situation.) I don’t expect this to happen, but keep in mind the fact that we are in this situation is yet another catastrophic failure in a long line of abysmal failures.
As someone who has supported Senator Sullivan and agrees with the majority of his politics, his answers to questions pertaining to these conflicts (Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Etc.) have always been insufficient. I myself have asked the Senator pointed questions on these topics on three occasions. As someone who first came to Alaska as an Infantry Solider in the 172nd SBCT, (Fairbanks), volunteered to deploy to Iraq with 4/25, 3/509th PIR. (Anchorage), wounded in Iraq (2007), deployed again with 1/1, 1/36 INF in 2009/2010 you can spare me the platitudes about sacrifice. What I would like to see and what most of the folks I know who fought in line units in these wars would like to see is some measure of accountability for the “many mistakes made” to quote our Senator
1) You should ask our good Senator why he voted to confirm SECDEC Lloyd Austin if Austin was incapable to executing a simple withdrawal from Afghanistan.
a. Keep in mind Austin was just here two weeks ago with Dan and I am fairly certain the notion that the Afghan Army was going to disintegrate in a matter of days was not on the radar. The USA Today has a headline that the SECDEC is “beyond disappointed in the Afghan Army” That’s nice, I am also disappointed in the Afghan Army, but I am also beyond disappointed with our SECDEC.
2) You can then perhaps ask him how is it that leaders in our “foreign policy establishment” continue to fail upwards without accountability for said mistakes.
a. Its nice that General Abizaid would provide kind words to a fellow soldier but that soldier’s friend died as a result of decisions Abizaid did or did not make as the FORSCOM commander. Abizaid held senior command positions from the invasion of Iraq up until the deadliest year for US forces (2007) throughout the entirety of OIF and OEF. What is the measure of culpability for his failure?
3) I’m tired of hearing that (insert name of President) refused to take the advice of (insert name of General) Last time I checked Generals had the ability to resign and if they felt so strongly about it they have an obligation to do so yet none of them did. Dysfunctional leadership has been a trademark of our policymakers ever since Colin Powell let us know how against the war he was after he so vehemently promulgated its assent.
The geostrategic realities of an Iranian dominated Shiite Rump state in Iraq and a Taliban lead (soon to be mining colony of the China) Afghanistan are self-inflicted disasters. These foreign policies coup’s we achieved on behalf of the CCP and Iran are so astounding, that it would be difficult to fathom either nation achieving such success as a result of their own direct action. You see, these realities are actually measurable. The true tragedy, the bitter pill that is hardest to swallow, is knowing that irrespective of all “the many mistakes” made, nobody will be held accountable let alone face any serious consequences.
Your response is a clear and to the point response to Sullivan.
There is no accountability for the military, the state department, the weaponized intelligence complex which has become the dominant 4th Branch of government, or any politician.
Not just resignations, court martials are in order for a large number in the officer corps. The Iraq and Afghan wars were never set with total victory strategic planning.
The same formula of identifying and creating a massive problem for the federal government to “solve” and then create a fully corrupt and incompetent response to it, designed to perpetuate indefinitely. Examples:
As in “war” on poverty, by creating an endless use of federal resources with 60 years of no result.
“war” on climate change, outsourcing our manufacturing and energy industry(s) (the cleanest and most efficient on earth) to the CCP, Russian Federation and other countries enriching the senators, politicians and special interests by creating more Co2 using foreign manufacturing and drilling methods.
“war” to eliminate Iraq’s WMD, by destabilizing Mideast, enriching the Bush(s), politicians, contractors, foreign entities, while at the same time developing with federal funding in North Carolina and then outsourcing the gain of function research to design the Covid-19 bioweapon, which created the endless “war” against the American people to incompetently deal with SARS-2. Our own politicians funded the development with cooperation of our #1 foreign enemy, the CCP controlled mainland of China, a bioweapon which has caused more harm worldwide than any previous deployment of bio or nuclear weapons.
“war” on Islamic inspired terror by nation building in Afghanistan. Afghan units fled to Iran, which promptly took possession of their US equipment.
The Taliban have purchased through bribes the surrender of the entire Afghan government inheriting all the military equipment provided by the US. Including aircraft. (Where did the Taliban find the bribe money?)
20 years and our military officers were unable to create a strategy to defeat a handful of Pashtun tribes. But the contractors, military officers who retire and hire on with contractors, politicians, and a myriad of foreign NGOs, governments, local Afghans, etc, made billions of our dollars.
Sullivan was tight with the Bush(s), his inexplicable certifying the fraudulent election makes more sense. There is a massive amount of corrupt profiteering at stake.
No Dan, you own this. You voted to confirm the Electoral College vote in a widely known fraudulent and stolen Presidential election that put Biden and his globalists handlers in control of our nation. You have zero credibility, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Resign now.
Biden followed the withdrawal plan coordinated by Trump. What could you possibly be implying here? That it would have been different if Trump followed his plan the same way?
Sorry but that is not accurate. Trump’s plan was to evacuate American citizens first, then SIV’s while maintaining the military presence at Bagram. After those populations were safely out of country, then he planned to ship out equipment so our adversaries could not use firearms and up against innocents. Then after all of that was done, the remaining troops would destroy any remaining assets paid for by the US taxpayer and come on home. A bit different from what Biden et al did.
This is a horribly tragic day and this has been ha fled with the complete ineptitude that Biden was know for, even before he lost his cognitive ability..that said-We didn’t need to be there 20 years. That we were, was a testament to the feckless and corrupt generals who kept telling each admin that the problem would be solved in a few more months, meanwhile bilking the US taxpayer out of billions for their contractor contacts or their colonial ideals, and putting the REAL heroes, our enlisted men and women, in harms way. Sure we killed some terrorists- but we also kept the opium trade going and provided rare earth minerals for China, and padded the bank accounts of Raytheon and Halliburton, and the longer it went on the more obvious why we were there became..
“Beware the military industrial complex.” Eisenhower
Yeah we remember. Went out and bought c-4 Canadian gas masks and hasmat suits.
We could have killed Osama Bin Laden within weeks instead of 10 years (2011) if our military services (Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy) had not pushed their parochial interests in the Tora Bora region where UBL was holed up. B-52 carpet bombing of that area would have neutralized UBL and his operatives but no, our military services each had to have a piece of the pie and our service members and their families suffered for that.
God bless our service members and their families and keep them safe.
After 20 years, we should have annihilated the Taliban. The war and its policy has been mismanaged by everyone after George Bush the younger. Are you telling me that we don’t have the ability to beat down a bunch of thugs on horseback with obsolete Chinese weaponry? We should have turned that place into a big glass factory. Get all the good guys out and then eradicate anybody left. The politicians must be kin to the same idiots who ran the Vietnam war. The bad guys today have learned that all they have to do is stay alive and the American taxpayers and policy makers run out of stomach for war after a certain length of time. The Russians and the Chinese know this also. We don’t really mean what we say anymore, we just sound tough in front of the CNN microphones.
That’s not very comforting hearing Biden and his administration is on vacation.
Going to be interesting to see how Biden/Harris will respond, Biden’s plate full of cookies and Harris’ jolly laugh isnt going to do much persuading Taliban terrorists to play nice.
Oh gosh! What a mess for those peoples to explain why they voted for Biden/Harris because of they thought Trump was mean bully and corrupt. Now America has cookie and jolly. Biden’s calm nature isnt going to get the world out if this mess like machine guns would do.
This is why I would vote for Dunleavy if Alaska held the election today, cause overall he has been an effective leader handling the small crisis’ Alaska faced. He wouldnt just go and hide somewhere to think about what he will do under crisis, while problem worsens.
I think being a Mayor vs. being a Governor is agian you comparing Apples to Oranges. Mayor Bronson doesn’t have the entire state like a Governor has to reckon with their own community and regional politics. Besides I think majority Anchorage residents (Democrats and Republican) agree with Bronson on masks, kids shouldn’t be forced into wearing them.
All for naught…..the terrorists will be emboldened now, not to mention all the weapons and ammo we left for them. At least Biden is planning on giving them a list of targets he strongly suggests they don’t attack. Greg’s a simp.
Simp? What’s that?
I certainly do not feel Senator Sullivan is any more to blame for this debacle than the rest of us. I voted for everyone named Bush and would do so again given the same alternatives. But the largely illiterate Afghan population the US found on 9/12/01 was only more guilty than people in Iceland or Australia were for the attack because Afghans are Islamists. We turned their country upside down as a result, and reasonable and educated people remaining there will now be murdered – but at least the murdered people will be Islamists and Muslims. Now the US has to decide who to attack if there is another and similar incident. Osama bin Laden was from Saudi Arabia, and his relatives still live there; President Bush protected those relatives and I cannot say that worked well for Americans. Palestinians and Egyptians were dancing in the streets when they heard of the attack on the United States, but we attacked only Iraq and Afghanistan. We are leaving Afghanistan exactly like we left Saigon, with our tails between our legs after a long and unsuccessful war. We don’t even know how we would have defined success had we found something that could be it. We fought with the best aircraft in the world, drones, artillery, state of the art armor, and computer technology. The enemy won with motorbikes and Toyota pickups. We give them names like Taliban and Al Qaeda, names that mean nothing to us and that the media took many years to agree on spelling, but the Afghans think they were defending their country just as they did when the Soviet Union invaded. If a war can be won fair and square then Afghanistan whipped us fair and square. I hope China believes that Americans would find the courage to fight like the Afghans do, and like the North Vietnamese did.
Abject failure of both military and intel leadership.
Perhaps DoD should have been concentrating on doing their mission rather than purging all Trump supporters in their membership using the white extremism excuse for their embrace of CRT / BLM and wokeness.
Perhaps the CIA (and the rest of the intel community) should not have spent most of the last 5 years cooking up schemes to remove Trump from office. All that time and effort could have been used to identify the shadow government the Taliban and their backers from Pakistan and China installed that allowed the lightning takeover.
There ought to be a LOT of resignations from DoD and intel leadership starting Real Soon.
If I were on Taiwan, I would be worried. Cheers –
The heavy artillery the Taliban terrorists are using came from the billions of dollars Obama gave to Iran. Biden is here to cover for Obama. Nice show boys. We the people have no say in this matter or any other matters. Looks like scenes from the end of the Vietnam War.
News flash, Biden still works for Obama.
What does Sullivan think we should of done differently for a different outcome? Easy to criticize. Biden already made a statement and owned up to the events in Afghanistan.
8/14/21
Over our country’s 20 years at war in Afghanistan, America has sent its finest young men and women, invested nearly $1 trillion dollars, trained over 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police, equipped them with state-of-the-art military equipment, and maintained their air force as part of the longest war in U.S. history. One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.
When I came to office, I inherited a deal cut by my predecessor—which he invited the Taliban to discuss at Camp David on the eve of 9/11 of 2019—that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001 and imposed a May 1, 2021 deadline on U.S. Forces. Shortly before he left office, he also drew U.S. Forces down to a bare minimum of 2,500. Therefore, when I became President, I faced a choice—follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our Forces and our allies’ Forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country’s civil conflict. I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.
Well a non brain-dead person would have probably gotten American personal out of Afghanistan before the Taliban seized the entire country.
The reality of the unmitigated disaster that is currently unfolding at the Kabul Airport is the Taliban are going to enact a heavy price on us in exchange for an unmolested withdrawal. That is squarely on Biden and his administration. You can choose to not accept that fact, but it’s an opinion based on ignorance of the tactical realities currently unfolding
Dan, you’re so full of it, I don’t even know where to start. We have an invasion on our southern border that is unsustainable with thousands of military aged men coming across that can’t all be vetted as our illegitimate bumbling and incompetent Joe Biden is a no show and his press person took the week off. We should have never gone to Afghanistan period. They have been a tribal nation fighting themselves for centuries and the U.S. being there wasn’t going to change that. We spent precious blood and trillions of dollars for what? You are as disingenuous as you are a moron like Murkowski. We are there for one reason, to protect the opium fields for the corrupt Deep State goons to make money and kill people with that poison. Why are you not calling for an impeachment of an idiot in the White House that isn’t even enforcing U.S. Immigration Law and is shipping these people around the country? Why are you not speaking out against CRT in our schools? Your a joke and I’m very disappointed in myself for voting for you in 2020. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!
I worry about the political viability of conservatives on foreign policy issues. I’m not a Republican, but I’ve voted R in every election, served in the military, and am a natural supporter of guys like Sullivan. And to me, the very idea we are fighting in Afghanistan to keep the “terrorists” over “there” is simply baloney. Why not just put up walls and restrict entry if people are so worried about “terror”? I’m sure not, and don’t really care. I would accept a 911 every year to get our troops out of those places, it’s much easier to defend than invade anyway. We spent billions in money and kill our people for no reason. The Founders would roll in their graves listening to guys like Sullivan, and I voted for him and probably will again because who else? But I can’t stand him on FP. Let’s get our troops out of every nation, everywhere, and I don’t think I’m alone in this viewpoint.
I am so disappointed in Dan Sullivan, what a betrayer of our country. What is happening in middle east is just the bug out the democrats did out of vietnam, killed thousands then and is killing thousand now. General Milley was blowing his own horn that he knew better than trump, looks more like they just know know how to just do things that didn’t work the first time, must work better this time. not.
I think it’s time to start looking at the 25th amendment.
Greg
The problem with that is having Harris as the president and then she nominates a VP. Scary times. But I sure don’t know how to unravel it. We sure screwed up the end game here.
No she goes too.
So much for helping people that can’t help themselves. Joe says they need to learn how to defend their own country and that may be true but obviously they aren’t there yet so we’re just going to let all of our people who died in vain go by the wayside. Joe really needs a kick in the pants. That’s the only way I can describe it. Trump wasn’t much better. Unless there’s something they’re not they’re not telling us, we may have sold them out.
I have had brothers and nephews fight in Iraq and Afghanistan one of wich died. Being ex military I know that the only way to fight a guerilla war is to become your enemy. It is not a question of if we get hit. It is when.
Open Question:
.
Did Dan Sullivan ever do any actual “combat” tours of duty? Jag officers typically are desk jockeys who can’t even reload a revolver.
Good point. Beau Biden was also a Jag. His bro Hunter was quicker at reloading the crack needle than Beau or Dan ever were on the revolver.
You are well named.
All talk. I am no longer a Sullivan supporter. He has sided with Schumer and Pelosi and has exposed himself to be a fake, and phony opportunist. A swamp creature. A Globalist.
I will vote for his primary opponent.
Oh, pleeese. What are the Taliban going to do? Row their dhows over here and storm the lowlands?
On the other hand, and off subject, 600,000 Americans have died from Covid. Should we rethink the battles we choose?
With the help of Iran and other bad players, anything is possible.
Hiden again.
So Dan, are you calling for Bidens resignation? Go along way if you did.
Comments are closed.