Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) is issuing a stark warning about what may come following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
During Tuesday’s appearance on CNN’s “New Day,” Waltz said that the war in Afghanistan helped keep America safe and noted, “We had an entire generation grow up not worried about planes flying into buildings or suicide bombers on school buses.”
However, he said, “The thing that has me perhaps the most upset is that that’s all now gone. Al-Qaeda 3.0 will come roaring back. Where Biden is so fundamentally wrong is this isn’t an Afghan problem, this is a global problem. And terrorism that grows in Afghanistan will spread like a cancer. It won’t stay there. It will follow us back.”
“So as we head into the 20th anniversary of 9/11, with the prospect of al-Qaeda 3.0 following us home… And further, the fact that we’re in a worse place than we were in 2001, some future soldiers are going to have to go back to deal with this. But now we have no bases, our local allies will have been hunted down, the Taliban are armed to the teeth from all of the weapons that they have now taken from the Afghan army,” he added.
Waltz also noted that there has not been a country in the region that has agreed to host U.S. forces or a base.
Watch the video below:
"Where Biden is so fundamentally wrong is this isn't an Afghan problem, this is a global problem. And terrorism that grows in Afghanistan will spread like a cancer. It won't stay there. It will follow us back," GOP Rep. Michael Waltz says about the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/eIoQyq4M69
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) August 17, 2021
Waltz’s comments come after the Taliban took control of Kabul, Afghanistan, the nation’s capital, after U.S. forces withdrew.
As Politico notes, the Taliban’s take over of the country prompted Pentagon officials to warn that terrorist groups could gain a foothold in Afghanistan and grow faster than previously expected.
While military officials are expected to revise an assessment of the terrorist threat in Afghanistan, intelligence officials say the withdrawal has diminished their intelligence-gathering abilities.