Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said on ABC’s This Week today that the Afghanistan “mission is in serious jeopardy.”
Part of the problem, she said, is the corrupt government of President Hamid Karzai. “How do you strengthen Karzai’s spine?” Feinstein asked, adding, “If you can.”
Referencing a brazen Taliban attack on Pakistani army headquarters, the California Senator said that a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan “will have a dramatic impact on Pakistan one day.”
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), also appearing on This Week, echoed Feinstein on that count, saying, “you can’t delink Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are coupled together.”
Chambliss said that “if Afghanistan falls” or “if we pull out,” “we know that the neighboring country has the opportunity to be really invaded or encroached upon by bad guys.”
So what’s to be done? Feinstein said that after eight years of war, she doesn’t think the United States can or should stay in Afghanistan for 10 to 12 years. “I don’t think the American people are up for that and want that.”
“We cannot be everyone’s gatekeeper, everyone’s policeman,” she said.
Feinstein also wondered how President Obama could reject Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for 40,000 additional U.S. troops without simply pulling out of Afghanistan.
I don’t know how you put somebody in who is as crackerjack as Gen. McChrystal, who gives the President very solid recommendations, and not take those recommendations if you’re not gonna pullout. If you don’t wanna take the recommendations, then you put your people in such jeopardy.
Chambliss reflected on the issue by saying that Obama is “gonna have to” green light McChrystal’s request for more troops. “I think the President has got to follow his commanders on the ground,” Chambliss said.
