In an op-ed on CNN.com today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) urged the President to send more troops to Afghanistan, claiming the current counterinsurgency strategy, beefed up with more resources, “can lead to success there.”
“I sympathize with our president, because sending men and women into harm’s way is the most difficult decision that a commander-in-chief must make,” McCain said. “However, Americans are already serving in harm’s way in Afghanistan, and the sooner we can provide the reinforcements and resources they need, the safer and more successful they will be.”
He urged Obama to accept Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendation for tens of thousands of more troops.
McCain also defined the war’s goal as allowing the Afghan people to run their own country without “substantial international assistance.”
“This won’t be perfect or easy, but it will allow America’s fighting men and women to leave Afghanistan with honor, and it will enable Afghans to build a better, more peaceful future,” he wrote. “That is our goal, and we must stay in the fight until it is won.”
He also said that this is the first time in the entire eight-year war that America has engaged in “a vigorous national debate” about strategy in Afghanistan.
