Rutgers National Security Expert Available to Discuss U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Rutgers scholar John J. Farmer, Jr., the former senior counsel for the 9/11 Commission, is available to comment on President Biden’s announcement regarding the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021.

“The news that American troops will be out of Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on our country is both welcome and, in some measure, deeply unsatisfying,” said Farmer, director of Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers’ Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience. “Twenty years and the sacrifice made in lives and altered futures certainly seems time enough to warrant our departure. But the Taliban has not been defeated, the Afghan government’s future seems uncertain and if the Taliban does retake control of the country once again, the advances in education and in women’s rights may be reversed and the country could once again become a refuge for extremists.”

Farmer is an expert in U.S. politics, law, national security and community protection for vulnerable populations. He is a former New Jersey attorney general. From 2003-2004, as senior counsel and team leader for the 9/11 Commission, Farmer led the investigation of the country’s preparedness for and response to the terrorist attacks and was a principal author of the commission’s final report.

For interviews contact, Gabriella Morrone, 848-932-8809, [email protected].