Cotton Statement on President Trump’s Address on Afghanistan

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) tonight released the following statement on President Trump’s address on the strategy in Afghanistan:

“The president gave a strong speech tonight, and I support his decision on Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks in that country, and it’s the one place where we’ve largely dislodged its network, though there’s clearly more work to be done after several recent years of drift. We cannot allow it to fall back into the hands of Islamist terrorists—because they’ll use it to launch even more attacks against us. The rise of ISIS in Iraq was a terrible lesson in the dangers of precipitous withdrawal.

“At the top of my mind tonight are the men and women of our armed forces. They’ve served long and nobly in this fight, and as many of them prepare for deployment, we owe them our thanks for seeing the mission through.”