NEW YORK, Sep 13 (APP):The United States’ involvement in Afghanistan and its commitments around the globe dominated the relatively brief national security portion of the Democratic presidential debate held in Houston, Texas, on Thursday night.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the nine candidates seeking Democratic presidential nomination, said she would pull the US troops out of the country even without a peace deal with the Taliban, but called for American investment instead in economic and development programmes that could help root out terrorism there and elsewhere.
“We cannot ask our military to keep solving problems that cannot be solved militarily,” Senator Warren said. “We’re not going to bomb our way to a solution in Afghanistan.”
A moderator of the debate pressed her on his plan to withdraw, pointing out that even the US military leaders had made it clear they believed troops withdrawal could not happen without a deal with the Taliban – a view many Afghans also held.
“Would you listen to their advice?” the moderator asked.
Senator Warren replied that military officials struggled to describe what winning in Afghanistan looked like “because the problems in Afghanistan are not problems that can be solved by a military”.
Former Vice President Joe Biden noted that he opposed the surge of troops in Afghanistan in the Obama administration because the country “cannot be put together.” His remarks surprise political commentators.
