Durbin Questions Afghanistan Strategy

[tekisui]

Source: The Swamp

Count Sen. Dick Durbin among those doubtful about the new deployment of troops in Afghanistan that President Barack Obama has ordered.

"I'm skeptical as to whether 30,000 more troops will make a difference,'' Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, No. 2 Democratic leader in the Senate and mentor and friend to Obama, said on FOX News Sunday. " We have over 200,000 now when you count NATO forces, American forces and Afghan military forces."

The U.S. military presence will grow to 98,000 by next summer, under the surge that Obama has ordered for Afghanistan, followed by a planned withdrawal of troops starting in July 2011, with the pace and endpoint of that draw down to be determined by "conditions on the ground,'' under the "new way forward'' that the president announced in a nationally televised speech last week.

"I understand the president took the time to reach this decision after more than seven years'' of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan,'' Durbin allowed. "We were at a point where we had to really reassess our strategy.''

(snip)

Durbin said: "And so I want to know, at least from my point of view, what the president's meaning is when he talks about this deadline."

more: http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/12/durbin_questions_afghanistan_s_1.html

[babylonsister]

1. Durbin isn't alone. Feingold weighs in:

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/feingold-afghanistan-strategy-doesnt-make-any-sense-to-me.php

Feingold: Afghanistan Strategy 'Doesn't Make Any Sense To Me'
Ben Frumin | December 6, 2009, 1:36PM


Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) said on This Week today that President Obama's Afghanistan strategy "doesn't make any sense to me" and "defies common sense."

Why would we build up 100,000 or more troops in parts of Afghanistan included that are not even near the border? You know, this buildup is in Helmand Province. That's not next door to Waziristan. So I'm wondering, what exactly is this strategy, given the fact that we have seen that there is a minimal presence of Al Qaida in Afghanistan, but a significant presence in Pakistan? It just defies common sense that a huge boots on the ground presence in a place where these people are not is the right strategy. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Here's the video (at link)

If anything, Feingold said, the escalation of the Afghanistan war will further embolden the Taliban and push the Afghan population to embrace America's enemies.

"This boots-on-the-ground approach alienates the Afghan population and specifically encourages the Taliban to further coalesce with Al Qaida, which is the complete opposite of our national security interest," Feingold said.

[tekisui]

2. It is good to see them take it seriously.

I don't think there is any chance of stopping it, though.

[Swede]

3. They are building up in Helmand because the Quetta Shura.

The south seems to be the focal point.