Senate Dems Warn Further Afghan Escalation May Meet Resistance
Senators Urge Obama to Speed Things Up
Several key Senate Democrats today cautioned that any attempt by President Obama to approve yet another escalation in the war in Afghanistan could be met by resistance on Capitol Hill.
Sens. Carl Levin (D – MI) and Jack Reed (D – RI), who just returned from a visit to the war torn nation, said that the US should put more focus into increasing the size and capability of the Afghan military. Sen. Levin insisted that there were a lot of ways to “speed up” the process and that the Afghans were “strongly motivated.” Sen. Reed agreed that this should be pursued before any further increase in the number of US troops.
The two Senators are both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and could likely make things very difficult on the president in trying to sell the further escalation of the war sought by General Stanley McChrystal, though they did not necessarily indicate that they would do so.
The comments come as several recent polls suggest that the American public is increasingly opposed to the war and dissatisfied with the endless increases in the number of troops committed by the administration. Though officials have several times promised to put more emphasis into increasing the size and power of the Afghan military, they appear to have had little success with significantly increasing their capabilities.
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Peacegeek
September 5th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
The popularity of the Afghan War is cratering, and Democrats like Levin and Reed are not the only ones in the Senate that have noticed that fact. As Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Levin is important. The only rationale for prolonging the conflict is to eliminate Al-Qaida — all the rest is propaganda. The fight against the Taliban is nothing less than a civil war. The argument against maintaining US forces in Afghanistan is that they cannot be expected to neutralize Al-Qaida because only special forces could accomplish that mission — if they knew the location. But, the problem is much larger than US forces — NATO is in Afghanistan. But the truth is that if the US lost the will to occupy Afghanistan, NATO would fold. Thank goodness, Biden is now arguing against US occupation.
Peacegeek
September 5th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
The popularity of the Afghan War is cratering, and Democrats like Levin and Reed are not the only ones in the Senate who have noticed that fact. As Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Levin is important. The only rationale for prolonging the conflict is to eliminate Al-Qaida — all the rest is propaganda. The fight against the Taliban is nothing less than a civil war. The argument against maintaining US forces in Afghanistan is that they cannot be expected to neutralize Al-Qaida because only special forces could accomplish that mission — if they knew the location. But, the problem is much larger than US forces — NATO is in Afghanistan. But the truth is that if the US lost the will to occupy Afghanistan, NATO would fold. Thank goodness, Biden is now arguing against US occupation.