(Washington, DC) — U-S Senator Chuck Grassley says the withdrawal of U-S forces from Afghanistan should not be rushed. Grassley told reporters, “whatever Trump or Biden wanted to do on reducing the number of troops or pulling out, they should have never set a date.” The Trump administration negotiated an agreement in early 2020 that called for a withdrawal by May 1st of this year. This spring, President Biden said the withdrawal would happen by September 11th, but in July Biden moved up the timeline to the end of August. Grassley said “it seems to me common sense would dictate…you’d do all that without letting the enemy know what you’re doing. …Any artificial deadline would lead to sure death for a lot of people that don’t deserve it.” The Iowa Republican called it “a big mistake” for President Obama to release five Taliban prisoners from Cuba in a swap for an American hostage and for President Trump to agree to a prisoner swap of five-thousand Taliban for about a thousand people held by the Taliban.
