This week, McKenzie testified in the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“ISIS and AQ (al Qaeda) are seeking to exploit a reduction of U.S. CT (counter-terrorism) efforts in Afghanistan to reinvigorate their adherents and increase their ability to plot and direct external attacks,” McKenzie said in written testimony.
They supported leaving 2,500 U.S. troops in the country and have doubts about the ‘over-the-horizon’ counterterror strategy.
With close ties to al Qaeda, the network’s influence and network are likely to grow within Afghanistan and beyond.
When officials signed off Aug. 29 on a Hellfire strike to obliterate a white Toyota they had been monitoring for eight hours, the belief was that it contained ISIS fighters carrying a bomb intended for U.S. troops outside the Kabul airport. The head of U.S. Central Command announced Friday that they were very wrong.
He may have wanted to score a quick political win, but the losses suffered on the ground are pointing another way.
His foreign policy may be more similar to Donald Trump’s than he realizes.
Hope is not a method
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