WASHINGTON—Representative Scott Franklin (FL-15), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a Navy veteran, today issued the following statement on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan:

"The events unfolding in Afghanistan were predictable and are a clear failure of leadership on the part of the Biden Administration. In rapid succession, the Taliban has overrun city after city, retaking Afghanistan after Americans spent blood and treasure for 20 years attempting to secure it. When President Biden announced he would completely withdraw troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 without a cohesive strategy to transition security responsibilities to the Afghans, he handed the Taliban a tremendous propaganda victory. The rapid pull out, well in advance of the announced withdrawal date, created a dangerous climate that forced President Biden to scramble, sending 3,000 additional U.S. troops to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. The lack of a sound transition strategy will go down as one of the worst foreign policy disasters in modern memory.  It emboldens our enemies and gives America’s allies reason to doubt our commitment when we call upon them in the future. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda on the United States that claimed the lives of 3,000 innocent Americans, the Taliban who hosted them will once again control a safe haven from which violent extremist organizations can unleash their terror upon the world. As history shows, a bad peace is no peace at all."