Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio), an Iraq war veteran, said Wednesday that President Obama’s plan to scale back troops in Afghanistan would leave a "vacuum" in which the Taliban will rise as the Islamic State did in Iraq.
Wenstrup, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Obama Monday urging the president to maintain the current level of 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through 2016. The letter was signed by almost two dozen Republican committee members, including Chairman Mac Thornberry (R., Texas).
The lawmakers cited the rise of the Islamic State (IS, also know as ISIS or ISIL) and other threatening groups in the region as reasons for Obama to rethink his plan to reduce U.S. troops to a small force based at the American embassy in Kabul by the time he leaves office.
"Our current force strength is the minimum capable of adequately staffing our bases," the congressmen wrote. "Any further reduction would result in base closures, minimizing our footprint, and hindering our intelligence capabilities going forward. This would severely limit our ability to conduct counterterrorism operations."
They said the United States’ hasty withdrawal from Iraq allowed for the rise of IS terrorists in the Middle East.
"We must recognize that the fight against violent extremism cannot be won overnight. We must learn from our experience in Iraq and be careful to not put the progress we have made in jeapardy," the Republican lawmakers advised. "Withdrawing from a country does not mean the problem goes away."
The letter was sent to the president one day before Gen. John Campbell, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Obama’s plan to significantly scale back U.S. troops in the war-torn country should be scrapped in favor of one that maintains a larger force.
"Based on conditions on the ground, I do believe we have to provide our senior leadership options different than the current plan we are going with," Campbell said, pointing to the rise of the Islamic State and insurgent violence in the region.
"We cannot now withdraw from our footprint in the country, at places like Bagram’s Air Force Base, and leave a vacuum for the reemerging Taliban to fill," Wenstrup stated Wednesday, citing Campbell’s testimony. "It would be a mistake to end our counterterrorism operations based on political timelines."
Obama is reportedly reconsidering the Afghanistan pullback and is looking at a plan introduced by former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey that would leave as many as 5,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2016. Campbell has also developed multiple options for a larger force in the country, including one that would maintain the current level of U.S. force of about 10,000.
Campbell will testify before the House Armed Services Committee Thursday. Thornberry told journalists late last month that scaling back U.S. troops to a small force by the end of 2016 would do "significant damage" to national security and the strength of Afghan forces.
"Let’s [not] have a repeat of Iraq where we have a new additional—and some people think even more serious—threat facing us, in part because we left too early and too fast," he said.