Senators tour Afghanistan, hear the need for more troops
“The situation is good, but we feel that there is a lot more work to do,” said Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on a conference call with reporters to discuss his trip to Afghanistan to meet with President Hamid Karzai. Senator Reid was accompanied by other members of the U.S. Senate including Jeff Bingamen(D-N.M.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and John Isakson (R-Ga.). The delegation flew first to Kyrgyzstan. After visiting troops and commanders in Afghanistan, they are staying for a day in Kazakhstan.
The Senate majority leader said there is concern about the resurgence of the Taliban, but that the ability to “deal with them” has been increased. Principal areas of concern are in eastern Afghanistan, as well as increasing violence in the south on the border with Pakistan.
Ried reported that the senators had met commanders in Afghanistan, principally Gen. David McKiernan, commander of International Security Assistance Force - Afghanistan (ISAF). “They generals made it clear that they need more resources,” he said.
ISAF commanders have requested three additional combat brigades, specifically citing the need for trainers and mentors for Afghan army and national police. At the April summit in Bucharest, the Department of Defense increased pressure on NATO allies to increase troop levels to Afghanistan and remove caveats that keep certain countries’ troops from combat. Recently the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said that the DoD is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan “sooner rather than later.” The Defense Department recently extended the deployment of about 3,450 Marines in Afghanistan by one month. Additionally, about 200 trainers were slated to go to Afghanistan last week.
Reid emphasized that he wants to give Afghanistan the attention it needs, saying it would have been better is Afghanistan had been given consistent troop level from the beginning.
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have said they would send 10,000 more troops to Afghanistan if elected president.
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August 7th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Everyone, including the military continue to see the “Taliban” as some kind of outside force. We must keep in mind the “Taliban” came to power by re-organizing ex-mujahadin groups, who had fought the Soviets for 10 years, to try to bring some order back to the country in the period of anarchy following the Soviet withdrawal. These were locally organized groups that rarely fought outside their home areas.We may assume that the present insurgent groups are made up of the same people or their sons and grandsons, that fought the Soviets…with a growing number of foreigners coming in from neighboring Muslim countries to support them against another invading non-Muslim foreign military occupational force, us.It is an unwinable “war” against a bunch of “rag-tag” guys that mostly live at home and go out to snipe at the foreigners in the day. Military force will not end the killing, as most of the military leaders of both the US and NATO continue to state but who continue to act as if it can.Our reconstruction efforts have generally failed through ignorance and bureaucratic blunders, disillusioning many of the rural population who had great hopes after the fall of the Taliban in 02, resulting in the explosion of opium poppy cultivation and greater support for the “Taliban”.Yes, we need a new policy but not greater military force. Ask the Soviets, the Brits and all the others that have tried to conquer the Afghans.