On Face the Nation this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he and his Republican colleagues in the Senate would support a request from President Obama for 40,000 additional U.S. troops for Afghanistan.
If that is the recommendation of Gen. Petraeus and Gen. McChrystal, who got it right in Iraq, I think Republicans, almost overwhelmingly, will support the President if that is his request.
“This is about protecting the United States of America,” McConnell said a moment earlier. “We know that we can’t have a haven over there for a reconstitution of al Qaeda.”
Though Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has asked for 40,000 more troops, it’s unclear whether President Obama will agree to such a request — or whether he can round up the necessary support from Democrats.
While Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) seemed to imply on This Week that granting Gen. McChrystal’s request was the only way to avoid pulling out of Afghanistan altogether, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, reiterated on Meet the Press today that he does not support sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
“At this time don’t send more combat troops,” Levin said. “But I say, focus on the Afghan forces, the army — faster, larger, better equipped.”
On Face the Nation, Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who also sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was less adamant that no new troops should be sent.
“It very well may be that additional troops are ordered,” he said.
