Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement today after President Obama announced the end of the War in Iraq by the end of this December:
“I commend President Obama for responsibly ending the war in Iraq and bringing our troops home. But we must also re-focus on our national security interests in Afghanistan and bring our combat troops from there as well after a full decade at war.
“Drawing down the war in Afghanistan with just 10,000 combat troops coming home this year is not fast enough. As I have advocated throughout this year, it is time to shift course in Afghanistan to a counter-terrorism mission with an aggressive drawdown of combat troops. In the decade since the start of this war, al-Qaeda has metastasized, expanding and strengthening its influence across the globe, and our most imminent threat in the past few years does not stem from Afghanistan.
“It is time for leaders in Afghanistan to take responsibility for their security, and the United States needs to adjust the fight against terrorism to the most current threat environment.”