{"id":30172,"date":"2011-06-23T00:20:34","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T06:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=30172"},"modified":"2011-06-23T14:11:38","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T20:11:38","slug":"nm-dems-in-congress-anxious-for-end-of-afghan-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/06\/nm-dems-in-congress-anxious-for-end-of-afghan-war\/","title":{"rendered":"NM Dems in Congress anxious for end of Afghan war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The U.S. Capitol building (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Democratic members of New Mexico\u2019s congressional delegation appeared anxious on Wednesday evening for the end of the war in Afghanistan, with some saying the president\u2019s announcement that he would bring 33,000 U.S. soldiers home by next summer isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that we need to take more significant steps than the president announced tonight in order to wind down this war and send a clear signal to the people of Afghanistan that the future of their country rests in their own hands,\u201d U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/a> said following the president\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

He was joined by U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a> in expressing a desire for a quicker withdrawal than Obama proposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m encouraged that President Obama is keeping his word to bring our troops home, I believe the time is right for a more accelerated drawdown,\u201d Heinrich said. \u201cWe must have a fundamental change in mission in Afghanistan focused on counterterrorism, just like what we saw work with the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday evening, Obama announced plans to bring 10,000 soldiers home by the end of this year and 23,000 by the summer of 2012. But, as The Associated Press<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026almost 70,000 U.S. troops will remain in an unstable country, fighting in a war bound to see more Americans killed. Obama said they will leave at a steady pace, but the U.S. combat mission is not expected to end until December 2014 \u2014 and even then, a sizable and enduring contingent may remain in a different role.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

Ending U.S. combat in Afghanistan in December 2014 isn\u2019t good enough for U.S. Sen. Tom Udall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the president is making good on a promise to begin the transition of combat troops, I would urge him to institute a 12-to-18 month flexible timeline for the Afghans to take control of their own security,\u201d Udall said.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a>, D-N.M., on the other hand, called the initial drawdown \u201ca good start\u201d and said he\u2019s glad that \u201cthe pace will accelerate next year.\u201d He added that the planned handover of security to Afghan forces in 2014 \u201cwould have been impossible when President Obama took office in 2009, and it is evidence\u00a0that progress that has been made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staffers for the only Republican member of the delegation, U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a>, who is running for Bingaman\u2019s seat next year, was the only non-incumbent candidate for federal office to send out a statement other than Heinrich, who is also running for Bingaman\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this reduction is a positive step, we must remember that close to 70,000 troops will remain in harm\u2019s way in Afghanistan, and our commitment to supporting them and our mission must not waver,\u201d Balderas said. \u201cThe sooner all of our troops are out of Afghanistan the better.\u00a0But it cannot be done at the expense of our country\u2019s safety.\u00a0As President Obama made clear tonight, we still have a tough road ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Democratic members of New Mexico\u2019s congressional delegation appeared anxious on Wednesday evening for the end of the war in Afghanistan, with some saying the president\u2019s announcement that he would bring 33,000 U.S. soldiers home by next summer isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,144,171,116],"class_list":["post-30172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-afghanistan","tag-military","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}