.Obama Adviser Says More U.S. Troops May Be Needed in Afghanistan
(CNSNews.com) - President Obama's National Security Adviser Jim Jones told CBS's “Face the Nation” on Sunday that "more security" in Afghanistan may mean more U.S. troops on the ground.
“I want to be clear on this -- I did not say that troop strength is off the table for discussion," Jones told CBS’s Bob Schieffer. He added that the war in Afghanistan "is not just about troop strength," nor is it just about Afghanistan: "It's about Pakistan and what is going on there."
"We won't rule anything out," Jones said later with regard to troop strength.
According to Jones, General Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander on the ground in Afghanistan, "is conducting an assessment" of the war at the request of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and eventually President Obama will have to make a decision on troop strength.
Obama in February authorized the deployment of 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan. “This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said at the time.
Asked about America's six-year involvement in Afghanistan -- and the fact that things seem to be getting worse, not better -- Jones said in his opinion, the U.S. "did not have a well-articulated strategy until March of this year," when a "three-legged" approach was implemented. The three legs include security, economic development, and better local governance.
"Security has always been done reasonably well," Jones said, but the other two elements -- economic development and local government -- have lagged, he added.
"We will shortly see, and I mean within a year, whether this strategy is working and then we'll -- we'll adjust from there," Jones said. He called Afghanistan "an international problem," and said President Obama has requested "regular reports" on how the U.S. is doing in the Islamic country.
Asked if things in Afghanistan have reached a crisis level, Jones said although an important election is coming up, he would not describe the situation as a crisis, since there’s “no indication” of any Taliban move to overthrow the Afghan government.
"There's going to be a little bit more fighting," Jones said. "Unfortunately, we’re taking more casualties, but if we’re able to marry up the other two legs of this three-legged stool that I mentioned, put things that will change the economic forecast for the Afghan people on the ground, put Afghan troops, Afghan police in the villages’ languages and towns, I think that’s the future.”
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told “Face the Nation” "it's too early to know" if Congress would go along with an Obama administration request to send even more troops to Afghanistan.
"It depends on what the facts and the arguments are," Levin said. "It depends what our commanders in the field say. It depends also, I think, in part, what our NATO allies are willing to do.” He noted that some allies “have fallen short of their commitments and we’re going to put maximum pressure on them to do what they promised to do, in terms of providing trainers for the Afghan army and also providing money."
Sen. Lindsey Graham said he would support more troops in Afghanistan. "I'll be shocked if more troops are not requested by our commanders," he said. Graham said he agrees with President Obama that Afghanistan is now the central front in the war on terror: "We must secure Afghanistan, and it is not secure now because we don’t have enough troops."
"If we go-- if Afghanistan becomes a chaotic situation, it affects Pakistan. So we’re going to need more of everything," Graham said on “Face the Nation.”
“My message to my Democratic colleagues is that we made mistakes in Iraq. Let’s not ‘Rumsfeld’ Afghanistan. Let’s don’t do this thing on the cheap. Let’s have enough combat power and engagement across the board to make sure we’re successful. And quite frankly, we all have got a lot of ground to make up.”
Graham said the U.S. didn’t have enough troops on the ground to secure the Iraqi population, and he said the U.S. shouldn’t “resist the idea that we’re going to need more (troops), because we are.”
cnsnews
“I want to be clear on this -- I did not say that troop strength is off the table for discussion," Jones told CBS’s Bob Schieffer. He added that the war in Afghanistan "is not just about troop strength," nor is it just about Afghanistan: "It's about Pakistan and what is going on there."
"We won't rule anything out," Jones said later with regard to troop strength.
According to Jones, General Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander on the ground in Afghanistan, "is conducting an assessment" of the war at the request of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and eventually President Obama will have to make a decision on troop strength.
Obama in February authorized the deployment of 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan. “This increase is necessary to stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said at the time.
Asked about America's six-year involvement in Afghanistan -- and the fact that things seem to be getting worse, not better -- Jones said in his opinion, the U.S. "did not have a well-articulated strategy until March of this year," when a "three-legged" approach was implemented. The three legs include security, economic development, and better local governance.
"Security has always been done reasonably well," Jones said, but the other two elements -- economic development and local government -- have lagged, he added.
"We will shortly see, and I mean within a year, whether this strategy is working and then we'll -- we'll adjust from there," Jones said. He called Afghanistan "an international problem," and said President Obama has requested "regular reports" on how the U.S. is doing in the Islamic country.
Asked if things in Afghanistan have reached a crisis level, Jones said although an important election is coming up, he would not describe the situation as a crisis, since there’s “no indication” of any Taliban move to overthrow the Afghan government.
"There's going to be a little bit more fighting," Jones said. "Unfortunately, we’re taking more casualties, but if we’re able to marry up the other two legs of this three-legged stool that I mentioned, put things that will change the economic forecast for the Afghan people on the ground, put Afghan troops, Afghan police in the villages’ languages and towns, I think that’s the future.”
Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told “Face the Nation” "it's too early to know" if Congress would go along with an Obama administration request to send even more troops to Afghanistan.
"It depends on what the facts and the arguments are," Levin said. "It depends what our commanders in the field say. It depends also, I think, in part, what our NATO allies are willing to do.” He noted that some allies “have fallen short of their commitments and we’re going to put maximum pressure on them to do what they promised to do, in terms of providing trainers for the Afghan army and also providing money."
Sen. Lindsey Graham said he would support more troops in Afghanistan. "I'll be shocked if more troops are not requested by our commanders," he said. Graham said he agrees with President Obama that Afghanistan is now the central front in the war on terror: "We must secure Afghanistan, and it is not secure now because we don’t have enough troops."
"If we go-- if Afghanistan becomes a chaotic situation, it affects Pakistan. So we’re going to need more of everything," Graham said on “Face the Nation.”
“My message to my Democratic colleagues is that we made mistakes in Iraq. Let’s not ‘Rumsfeld’ Afghanistan. Let’s don’t do this thing on the cheap. Let’s have enough combat power and engagement across the board to make sure we’re successful. And quite frankly, we all have got a lot of ground to make up.”
Graham said the U.S. didn’t have enough troops on the ground to secure the Iraqi population, and he said the U.S. shouldn’t “resist the idea that we’re going to need more (troops), because we are.”
cnsnews
posted by madtom at 7:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home