(Washington, D.C.) – Wyoming’s U. S. Congresswoman Liz Cheney joined Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this Sunday. During the interview, she discussed foreign policy, including the disastrous effects of prematurely withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and the need to fully defeat ISIS:
TODD: Let me move to some foreign policy issues. Here was the president yesterday talking about the potential withdrawal of troops in Syria. Take a listen.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (CLIP): In two years, we’ve, I guess, reduced it to about 99% of the territorial caliphate. We’re killing ISIS for Russia, for Iran, for Syria, for Iraq, for a lot of other places. At some point you want to bring our people back home.
TODD: I know you’ve been to the White House to talk about your concerns about too quick of a pullout there. Does that make you feel better, or does that sound like a president that still wants to move a little faster on this pullout than you do?
REP. CHENEY: Look, I think what’s very important to recognize is that we have to make sure that we finish the job. If you look at the —
TODD: So 99% in your mind is not finishing the job?
REP. CHENEY: It’s not. If you look at the mistakes, Barack Obama made when he pulled out of Iraq precipitously, when he declared the war ended — and the war certainly wasn’t ended. We end up with chaos in the aftermath. In a place like Syria, what our special operations forces are doing there is crucially important. In order to be able to provide air support, some artillery support, we’ve got to ensure that ISIS is destroyed. Because if you walk away before they’re destroyed, then they have the ability to create safe havens to launch attacks against us again.
TODD: Some will say there’s always an ISIS, there’s always an al Qaeda. They’re just going to change their name. So it means we’re always going to be there. What do you say to folks that think — that your definition means we’re always going to have troops in the middle east.
REP. CHENEY: We have to fight them there, so they don’t fight us here. The definition of victory in the middle east, the definition of victory in Afghanistan, in Syria is that we don’t have another 9/11. So we’ve got to recognize that the kind of enemy we’re facing can, with very little territory, very little resources, have bases from which they can plot and plan and launch attacks. We have an obligation to make sure they don’t do that.