John McCain
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
August 1, 2017
U.S. Senator John McCain (Republican-Arizona) says he will propose a plan for a U.S. strategy in Afghanistan as an amendment to a defense authorization bill later this year.
McCain, an influential Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Service Committee, said in a July 31 statement that more than six months after U.S. President Donald Trump took office, “there still is no strategy for success in Afghanistan.”
“When the Senate takes up the National Defense Authorization Act in September, I will offer an amendment based on the advice of some our best military leaders that will provide a strategy for success in achieving America’s national interests in Afghanistan,” he said.
McCain, who has been undergoing treatment for brain cancer that was diagnosed earlier in July, also criticized the Afghanistan policies of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, saying “eight years of a ‘don’t lose’ strategy has cost us lives and treasure” in the war-torn country.
McCain, the former Republican presidential nominee who lost to Obama in 2008, was part of a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators who visited Afghanistan in early July and called for a new strategy to turn the tide against an increasingly strong Taliban insurgency and end the longest U.S. war.
With reporting by Reuters and AP
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
Related