The evacuation from Afghanistan is complete, but Central New York’s congressmembers say the botched pullout of troops has only created more problems that will impact us here at home. They’re mainly concerned about keeping the country safe.
24th district Representative John Katko says the US could have maintained a peacetime footing in Afghanistan like it has in Germany, Japan, and Korea for the past several decades. He’s ranking member on the house homeland security committee, and says the abrupt and sweeping pullout has already set us back.
"The terrorists are already there. We've already seen it because they've launched terror attacks on our forces and killed our people in the last week. They're going to metastasize again, just like they did the last time the Taliban had control for 20 years. Let's not forget: That's why we went over there because that was the root cause of 9/11."
He also has concerns about the influx of refugees to the US, and if they’re being properly vetted.
"There's been some reports of possibly people that are on a terror watch list have been intercepted at some of these lily pads, these countries taken to by us. They haven't gotten in to the U.S., we hope. We're going to make sure that doesn't happen."
22nd district representative Claudia Tenney sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"Make sure we're vetting whoever these people are. Are they visa holders, are they green card holders, are they American citizens. This is a process being put on us to do on an emergency basis to save lives. This all should have been planned out in advance."
She says the Biden administration had months of advance notice to better prepare an exit from Afghanistan.