CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Sept. 20, 2012 – 11:37 p.m.
As Violence Spikes, Afghan War Questions Rise
By Frank Oliveri and John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff
Republican lawmakers, including the top Defense appropriator in the House, are beginning to question whether U.S. troops can accomplish their mission in Afghanistan after a surge in killings of American troops by Afghan security forces.
“We’re losing lives and it is getting harder and harder to accept,” said Sen.
Lawmakers are increasingly hearing from constituents what polls have indicated for some time — that more and more Americans want the war to end, particularly after the killing of Osama bin Laden. They also are hearing staunch supporters of the military mission, including
“I want our troops out of Afghanistan quickly and safely,” Young said Thursday.
The appropriator noted that he would never vote to withhold from military personnel anything they need on the front lines. When asked if his new opposition to the war would translate into support for legislation to fund only an orderly withdrawal, he said it would depend on the exact language, but added: “That’s pretty much my position.”
Behind the growing doubts of Young and some other GOP lawmakers are concerned about a spike in violence and the continuing unreliability of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Pakistani government as partners.
But it’s the rise in suicide attacks by Afghan soldiers on the Americans who are training them that could really undermine the mission of preparing Afghan forces to be able to stand alone, according to lawmakers such as Rep.
“If we’re not partnering, [why] are we there?” one senior congressional aide wrote in an email. “The whole model of developing the [Afghanistan National Security Forces] to provide for some level of stability and security was based on partnered units and embedded advisers who were capable of providing access to U.S. enablers (logistics, medevac, air support, etc.). If we can’t partner and embed to develop the ANSF and provide those enablers, is there any hope that the ANSF will be able to do the job at some point?”
The United States has withdrawn from Afghanistan the roughly 33,000 troops President Obama surged into the fight beginning in 2009. Roughly 68,000 U.S. troops remain there. The president plans to draw down most U.S. forces by 2014. Over the next year, Obama hopes to degrade Taliban resistance, complete training and field about 352,000 Afghan security forces and stabilize the country enough to prevent a reemergence of al Qaeda.
Senate Caution
Doubts about the U.S. mission in Afghanistan appear to be more openly expressed in the House than the Senate, which often moves more cautiously.
Indeed, senior congressional aides noted that the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee has sent a series of more than a dozen questions to the Defense Department raising concerns about the U.S. military mission in light of the recent attacks, while also demanding a briefing.
A senior Senate Armed Services staffer said that panel would not badger the administration, content to wait for the military to impose some changes to operations, such as requiring higher-level military approval for partnering missions. “We think that is a more prudent approach,” the staffer said.
As Violence Spikes, Afghan War Questions Rise
But even in the Senate, Republican senators are striking a more worried tone when questioned about the Afghanistan mission, although few politicians, including Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, are speaking about it much on the campaign trail.
While stressing that the ultimate decision to accelerate a withdrawal from Afghanistan should be made by the president, GOP Deputy Whip
Of course, there are still a number of staunch supporters of a muscular U.S. military footprint in Afghanistan.
“We need to finish our job,” Grassley said.
Further, they suggest that the president’s decision to announce his intent to withdraw U.S. forces by 2014 may be the cause for the degradation of the situation in Afghanistan.
“I think what is happening is a clear indication that the president’s policy and plans in Afghanistan are failing,” said Rep.
“The whole issue should be looked at, the entire plan that we have,” he said. “It proves again that if you tell your enemy loud enough and often enough that you are leaving and you are withdrawing, then your enemy will take appropriate action and learn an appropriate lesson. This president has not yet ever mentioned the word success or victory in Afghanistan.”
Several Senate Republicans also took turns on the floor Thursday slamming the president’s policy on the Middle East.
But Rep.
Notes From Constituents
Several lawmakers said their views are being shaped by constituents.
Young, who said he would support an orderly withdrawal, said his view changed after receiving an email from a constituent, Army Staff Sgt. Matthew S. Sitton, who complained that his unit — the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division — was being forced to meet a quota of four to eight hours per day patrolling an explosives-laden area even as the unit’s casualties mounted.
As Violence Spikes, Afghan War Questions Rise
“As a brigade, we are averaging at a minimum an amputee a day from our soldiers because we are walking around aimlessly through grape rows and compounds that are littered with explosives,” Sitton wrote to Young in June. “I am writing this letter because I feel myself and my soldiers are being put into unnecessary positions where harm and danger are imminent.”
Two months later, Sitton and another soldier were killed by an IED.
Jones said in May when he and Rep.
“Everybody really understands we have been there 11 years; we’ve been training the Afghans for 11 years. I mean, for goodness’ sake, you can train a monkey to ride a bicycle in that length of time,” he said. “And the fact is that this issue of those we are training ending up shooting our own shows that there is not going to be any satisfactory solution to the effort to train the Afghans to take care of their own country.”
Meanwhile, many Democrats, who have supported the president’s strategy in Afghanistan but are inclined to accelerate a withdrawal, say they stand ready to do so if the president calls on them.
“It is chilling and blood-curdling to see what is happening in Afghanistan,” said Maryland Sen.