Reuters reported that President Barack Obama summoned key Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Tuesday for a meeting at the White House to hash out their views on how to overhaul strategy in the eight-year war, where the military says the Taliban has the momentum in the unpopular conflict.
A U.S. official said, “He also made it clear that his decision won’t make everybody in the room or the nation happy, but underscored his commitment to work on a collaborative basis.”
“Leaving Afghanistan isn’t an option,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier.
The New York Times stated that President Obama told Congressional leaders that he would not substantially reduce American forces in Afghanistan or shift the mission to just hunting terrorists there, but he indicated that he remained undecided about the major troop buildup proposed by his commanding general.
Republican Senator John McCain warned Obama against “half measures” and urged him to implement a plan by the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, who wants as many as 40,000 more troops and trainers to fight the war, Reuters said.
“I am very convinced that General McChrystal’s analysis is not only correct but should be employed as quickly as possible,” McCain told reporters after the 90-minute meeting.
“There is no middle ground,” McCain emphasized.
The most visible argument against General McChrystal’s request for additional troops is voiced by Vice President Biden. His approach would increase the use of such surgical strikes while leaving the overall size of the American force in Afghanistan roughly at the 68,000 troops currently authorized.
Of concern to many is that we must avoid a repeat of the defeat-tinged, Nixon/Kissinger withdrawal from Vietnam which left thousands of pro-U.S. Hmong and other Vietnamese citizens at the mercy of the North Vietnam Communists.
To leave hundreds of thousands of Afghans to the subjection and reprisals of the Taliban would be totally unconscionable.
