Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., says President Barack Obama has some tough decisions to make as he proceeds with fighting the war in Afghanistan. If the president can’t clearly define a strategy, Bingaman said it might be time for the U.S. military to pull out of the country.
On a conference call with reporters, Bingaman said Monday, “The president is going to have some very difficult decisions to make as to whether or not we can define a strategy that gets us to a point of being able to stabilize that situation there and claim some measure of success in the reasonable future.”
Obama is currently taking a long, hard look at U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan before agreeing to commit additional troops. And he is facing congressional pressure to explain his strategy. Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said the United States must keep up the fight in Afghanistan, otherwise the country will be ceded back to the Taliban.
Bingaman said more attention should have been given to military strategy in Afghanistan after the U.S. initially invaded:
“I think our attention was deflected into Iraq, which I did think was a big mistake. I didn’t think we had any business invading Iraq as we did, but now that we are in Afghanistan I think we have to make a sober judgment about what are the achievable objectives that we can look to accomplish here in the next few years. If we can’t define those properly or adequately, then we need to go to plan B and find a way to extricate ourselves.”
You can listen to Bingaman’s full interview here:
Top commander says more troops are critical
The top commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan warned in a confidential assessment leaked to the media that without more troops the Afghanistan mission will likely result in failure. That report has added to the pressure on the Obama administration, which is already squeezed by declining public support and skepticism from some over troop levels.
Obama has said he’s going to look at the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan with a skeptical eye. Bingaman said without a clearly defined strategy, Obama will have a tough time persuading Congress that more troops are necessary.
“I think the experience of other countries that have been involved with Afghanistan should give us a lot of warning about wading in without any clear idea on how we are going to succeed,” Bingaman said.
Two senior administration officials have said the president’s strategy in Afghanistan may shift away from more troops and focus more on terror targets in Pakistan. Bingaman said al-Qaida “has entrenched itself in Pakistan and is doing a pretty good job of growing its strength in Afghanistan as well.”
“I think whatever we do in Afghanistan in the future is going to have to depend on our plans and our strategy in Pakistan also,” he said. “I think the administration needs a well-defined strategy, and plan of action, that it can justify before it’s going to get a lot of support from the Congress for more troops in Afghanistan.”
Monday night, the president discussed the war in Afghanistan on CBS’ Late Night With David Letterman: