President Barack Obama had to leave some troops in Afghanistan, Rep. Peter King said Thursday, but he's only leaving enough there to contain damages until he leaves office.
"I still don't see how a small number like this, 9,000 [or] 5,000 is going to be enough," the New York Republican, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program.
"With this president, you are not sure what he is going to do, but I tell you all the briefings we have gotten in the last several months or several weeks, the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating."
On Thursday,
Obama said his plan will keep 5,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan into 2017, after his term ends.
The number will represent just over half the 9,800 troops that are in the country now, but is far less than the 100,000 troops there in 2010 and earlier.
King said those numbers will do the "bare minimum," that is is needed, and "right now there are more Taliban forces around Afghanistan than at any time since 9/11."
Meanwhile, the United States has suffered a "tremendous crisis of confidence" in Syria and the Middle East, where "both friends and enemies don't take us seriously."
Saudi Arabia and Egypt are both dealing with Russians, who are now back in the Middle East for the first time in decades, King continued, and ISIS is advancing into Afghanistan.
"We have to lay out our message that we have to stand up to Islamic terrorism and we cannot be retreating from the world," said King.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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