Sen. Graham: Massacre of Civilians Doesn’t Mean Afghan War Strategy Flawed

'These Things Happen,' Hawkish Senator Insists

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” program today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC) shrugged off the massacre of 16 Afghans in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province by an apparently drunken US soldier, insisting that “these things happen.

“You just have to push through these things,” Graham insisted, adding that if the US kept occupying Afghanistan “we can win this thing” and that despite the massacre, progress was being made in the 11 year long occupation.

Graham went on to say that the key to the war was to make a public commitment to keep occupation forces in the country beyond 2014, saying that a continued military presence would “make sure the Taliban never come back.”

Uniformly hawkish, Graham has been at the forefront of shrugging off the recent Afghan disasters, insisting during the mass protests earlier this month over US military burnings of Qurans that the protests did not represent a “total picture” of the war.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.