AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
- Sen. Lindsey Graham said the US would reenter Afghanistan to stop Al Qaeda from growing.
- The BBC reporter interviewing him looked shocked and interrupted, asking if he really believed it.
- Graham said: "We'll have to. We'll have to. Because the threat will be so large."
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Video shows a BBC reporter looking stunned after Sen. Lindsey Graham said the US would likely reinvade Afghanistan.
Graham, a Republican, spoke with BBC presenter Stephen Sackur, where he criticized the Taliban – which has now taken over the country again – for how they will treat Afghans.
Graham said: "But most importantly, they're going to give safe haven to Al Qaeda who has ambitions to drive us out of the Mid East writ large and attack us because of our way of life."
"We will be going back into Afghanistan, as we went back into Iraq and Syria."
Sackur then looked shocked, and interrupted Graham.
"Hang on. You seriously think the United States will once again, in the foreseeable future, put troops back into Afghanistan?"
Graham replied: "We'll have to. We'll have to. Because the threat will be so large. It will be a cauldron for radical Islamic behavior."
The Taliban, when last in power before 2001, provided safe haven to terrorist groups like Al Qaeda.
Experts now warn that Afghanistan is likely to become a breeding ground for terrorism, as Insider's John Haltiwanger previously reported.
