Former Congressman and Army veteran Max Rose says the war with Afghanistan was worth it, but argues the United States’ exit from the Middle East country could have gone "smoother."

The Democrat was an infantry platoon leader in Kandahar Province in 2012 and 2013, where he helped transition a combat outpost to Afghan National Army control.

What You Need To Know

  • “What we are seeing right now unfolding before our eyes, it breaks your heart," Max Rose said of the current situation in Afghanistan

  • Rose, a Democrat, was an infantry platoon leader in Kandahar Province in 2012 and 2013

  • Rose says a “deep dive” is needed to determine what could have gone better with the withdrawal, but he sidestepped direct criticism of President Joe Biden's handling of the exit

“What we are seeing right now unfolding before our eyes, it breaks your heart. It breaks my heart,” Rose said of the past week’s chaos on the ground.

Afghanistan, where U.S. troops fought for 20 years following the 9/11 attacks, has been overrun by the Taliban with astonishing speed amid the U.S. withdrawal from the country. 

Still, Rose argues, America’s longest war needed to end.

“That belief that this war did serve a purpose ... can't bleed into a defense for perpetual war in an untenable situation,” he said. “There was nothing else truly that we could achieve by further investing in the Afghan National Army.”

In recent days, Republicans and some Democrats have condemned President Joe Biden’s handling of the U.S. exit. 

Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, who defeated Rose during his reelection bid in 2020, tweeted that Biden “withdrew troops from #Afghanistan w/o a plan & focused on a political deadline instead of strategic one.”

 

 

 

Rose, who has not ruled out another run for Congress, says a “deep dive” is needed to determine what could have gone better with the withdrawal. But during an interview with Spectrum News NY1, he sidestepped direct criticism of Biden.

“There’s no doubt that the point of failure ... was the intelligence estimates that said that it would take months if not years — rather than days — for the Taliban to overcome the country,” he said.

Watching the war’s dramatic drawdown, Rose said he is thinking about his military friends who may feel their service means a little less now.

“They kept us safer. And they showed the world that America has backbone,” he said. “It’s our responsibility to tell them, to say as loud as we can, how thankful we are for what they've done.”