Sullivan critical of Afghan troop rollout

WASILLA — U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan was in Wasilla on Wednesday to attend the Mat-Su Opioid Task Force recovery fair at Wasilla Lake. Sullivan granted an interview with the Frontiersman, and spent much of his time discussing what he felt was a failure to President Biden’s administration regarding the Aug. 31 exodus of American troops from Afghanistan.

Sullivan spent 10 years in the United States Marine Corps on active duty and served in Afghanistan.Sullivan often recalls a moment in 2004 when serving under Central Command General Abizade in Iraq, when a soldier who had just lost one of his friends asked if the sacrifice had been in vain.

“What we need to make sure we’re saying is this sacrifice was not in vain right, because they need to hear this, especially the people who are struggling, because there are people who are struggling and it’s not in vain,” said Sullivan. “The whole mission was kill the terrorists, make sure Afghanistan doesn’t become a safe haven for terrorism so we don’t get attacked again. That was successful, we’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the United States of America has not been attacked again.”

Sullivan is concerned for the mental well-being of not just Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, but all veterans. He raised the alarm back in April during hearings, questioning the strategy of the rollout of American troops and the use of Special Immigration Visas for Afghan citizens.

“There’s this heaviness in our hearts. You can’t turn the tv on and think about positive notions of service when you see what has clearly been a chaotic, botched withdrawal. Whether you were for leaving or you thought we should continue to stay there, there’s very few people who think what we’ve witnessed in the last four weeks was planned or helps the national security interest of our country,” said Sullivan. “We’re going to be threatened again because of this, so there’s not going to be a lot to commemorate on 9/11 when we celebrate the 20th anniversary here in a week or so.”

Sullivan feels that while executing a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO), that the essential people and equipment should first be evacuated, prior to military forces. Sullivan said that the August 31 date to remove all American troops from Afghanistan has shredded the credibility of the United States with NATO allies and made Afghanistan a safe haven for terror with tens of billions of dollars in American weapons.

“The decision that was made by the Trump administration and then the Biden administration to pull the troops out, that’s one decision I didn’t agree with,” said Sullivan. “There’s a lot of angry members of congress from both sides of the aisle by the way. There’s a whole host of things that could have been done better. In some ways the military was put in a straight jacket because the President had troop levels that he was insisting upon.”

Sullivan led other Senators in signing a letter asking the State Department to expand the eligibility requirements for Special Immigration Visas for Afghan citizens, calling the eligibility “distinction without difference.” Sullivan said that he believes President Biden has lied to Americans by saying that over the horizon capabilities to remove terrorists do not exist and also by saying that the pullout of American troops was an extraordinary success.

“By any measure this has been a foreign policy fiasco, did not have to happen this way. This argument by the President oh, any ex-fill was going to be messy. That’s not true and the President, one of the things that’s really and you know me I’m a republican but I’m not like a total bomb thrower, but he has gotten on tv in the last three weeks and has told just blatant falsehoods,” said Sullivan. “I certainly thought that the way in which the withdrawal was going to be conducted wasn’t going to actually do exactly what everybody was scared of and I’m talking with our top generals, nobody is calling this an extraordinary success. To the contrary they’re recognizing that this is likely blowing up into another safe haven for international terorrism that unfortunately we’re going to have to pay a hell of a lot of attention to.”

Sullivan said that with a depleted intelligence gathering network on the ground in Afghanistan, he believes that the Haqqani network and Parwan prisoners recently released will foster a network of terrorism.

“In addition to Americans, there were thousands and thousands of Afghanis who trusted in us and worked with us and risked their lives with us who we know are going to be targeted by the Taliban when we leave,” said Sullivan. “If people worked with us, risked their lives with us, relied on us, the women in Afghanistan who ran for Parliament, the girls who started going to school only because by the way the American military was there, that’s it. Let’s face it, a lot of people like to besmirch the American military. The American military has done more to liberate humankind from tyranny and oppression than any other force in human history, nobody likes to talk about that but that’s a fact, hundreds of millions of people by the way including in Afghanistan and all of them are going to be at risk.”

Sullivan also offered his analysis of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act of 2021, which includes a 34 % increase across the nation beyond the previous long-term highway authorization, and includes an additional $110 billion over five years for roads and bridges. The Mat-Su Borough Assembly recently passed a massive bond package that relies on the probability of available Federal funding to complete a number of road projects.

“I have always thought the Mat-Su Assembly, the Borough, this community does at the local level I think an incredible job on infrastructure, not perfect but I get all over the state and this is probably one of the most impressive places that actually likes to get things done and build things, especially roads because the population is expanding and the Mat-Su Borough does and the Assembly, they do it quite well and they need to be complimented and it’s not like that everywhere in the state,” said Sullivan. “Alaska does better than any other state in terms of the formula there… I think it’s over $ 4 billion over five years that goes straight to the STIP, roads, ports, bridges, airports, a massive buildout of broadband that our state, the estimates are $1.5 to 1.6 bil over five years.”

Sullivan said that he is a firm proponent that the Federal government should be involved in infrastructure and has communicated with the Governor Mike Dunleavy specifically about the Federal funding that will be spent by state officials. The bill also includes an $18 billion loan guarantee for the Alaska Liquefied Natural Gas pipeline project.

“Look, we’re Alaska man. Yeah I’m a conservative but you’re damn right I’m in there fighting for big infrastructure. So to your question, hell yes. Hell yes this bill will help the Mat-Su Borough which again, I think does a really good job on infrastructure but I talked to the Mayor, I talked to the Assembly members, could they use more help from the Feds? Of course, and this bill will provide it.”