Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Iraq War veteran, said Sunday he is happy President Barack Obama has reversed course on pulling troops from Afghanistan, but said he expects to see them remain there longer than the president's timetable.
"I give the president credit for reversing strategy here and saying we're going to maintain this presence. But two years ago we could have all predicted this when he said we're going to go to 5,500 and then just an embassy presence," Kinzinger said on ABC's
"This Week."
"Seeing what happened in Iraq and then seeing what the situation in Afghanistan we all knew what was going to happen," he said. "Which is to the next point: why the president has to say 9,800 troops and then we're going to go to 5,500 'by the time I leave office.'"
Kinzinger called that "artificial numbers and artificial timelines." In reality, he said, "We're going to stay until the Afghan government can stand on its own."
He noted that U.S. troops are still in South Korea more than 60 years after hostilities ended and are still in Kosovo as well.
Kinzinger also touched on the presidential race, saying that GOP front-runner Donald Trump's foreign policy is only "one layer deep" and that saying the United States should cede the Middle East to Russia is "ludicrous."
"When people get to understand beyond what he says on the surface, what he really believes, they'll see there's nothing there or it's not in line with what Republicans believe in our principles," he said.
Related Stories
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.