Republican Senator Lindsey Graham made an ominous prediction on Sunday when he said the US will be re-deploying troops into Afghanistan 'like we went back into Iraq and Syria' because the Taliban will turn the conflict-ridden country into a 'safe haven' for radical Islamists.
'They're going to give safe haven to Al Qaeda, who has ambitions to drive us out of the Mideast writ large and attack us because of our way of life,' Graham said on the BBC.
'We will be going back into Afghanistan like we went back into Iraq and Syria.'
Graham's remarks came less than a week after the US completed its military evacuation from the country and ended its 20-year engagement in America's longest war.
'Hang on - you seriously think the United States will once again in the forseeable future put troops back into Afghanistan?' BBC host Stephen Sackur pressed.
'We'll have to,' Graham answered. 'We’ll have to because the threat will be so large.'
Lindsey Graham said the US will and should return to Afghanistan less than a week after the US military completed its evacuation from Kabul
'Why did we go back to Syria and Iraq? Why do we have 5,000 troops in Iraq today? Because of the caliphate rising, projecting force outside of Iraq, killing Americans, killing the French, attacking the British.'
The South Carolina senator said Afghanistan will soon be 'a cauldron for radical Islamic behavior.'
Taliban officials have repeatedly sought to project a relatively more modern, revitalized image to the world in their quest for international legitimacy.
In a peace deal struck under former President Donald Trump in 2019, the Taliban pledged it wouldn't allow terrorist groups to grow and pose a threat to western forces.
Since taking Afghanistan the Taliban promised blanket amnesty to people who worked with the US government and said women would have freedom to hold jobs and go to school.
But grim reports of targeted killings, including the murder of a pregnant Afghan policewoman, reflect brutal treatment and little mercy.
The Taliban promised a more modern, peaceful rule compared to their brutal reign over Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001
Taliban special forces fighters stand guard outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport
And the return of a top Al Qaeda associate to his hometown in Afghanistan after 20 years on the run indicates the Taliban may turn a blind eye to its rebuilding effort.
Amin ul-Haq, a top Al Qaeda arms supplier, returned to his hometown in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province on Monday just over two weeks after the Taliban completed its lightening fast offensive to take over nearly all of the
