Good news for Afghanistan?

While on CBS news program Meet the Press last Sunday, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) suggested that the president may very well be open to adding more troops to the Afghanistan conflict, giving hope to supporters of the war who had been pessimistic about Obama’s apparent indecisiveness concerning Afghanistan. “It very well may be that additional troops are ordered,” said Reed, whose views are widely thought to reflect those of the White House. “Certainly there’s a building consensus about additional trainers for the Afghan security forces. We have to also, I think, build up our counterinsurgency forces and build up the enablers, the intelligence groups.”

The words and phrases Reed uses somewhat gave him away. “Counterinsurgency” is the term of choice for the strategy that the president’s new military commander for Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, would like to use. According to military and foreign affairs author and columnist David Ignatius, who also appeared on the show, Reed’s statements were “a very clear statement of where the president and his inner group are.”

McCrystal’s strategy, commonly known as the “surge”, would reportedly need another 40,000 troops, on top of the 21,000 that Mr. Obama has already allotted him. This strategy is closely associated with Gen. David Petraeus, who used it successfully to tamp down insurgent violence in Iraq, under President George W. Bush.

The United States already has around 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, including the recent reinforcements that Obama has sent. Almost 900 of those soldiers are from Rhode Island. They are part of a force of more than 100,000 NATO troops.

While Reed declined to answer whether or not he supports the addition of 40,000 troops, other leading Democrats, such as Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), have spoken out against the deployment of more troops, while pushing for more efforts to expand and train the Afghan security forces and army. “It would be a mistake,” said Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) on ABC’s This Week. “Stabilizing Afghanistan should not mean, and does not mean, a larger footprint.”

Reed’s appearance comes on the heels of the news that the Taliban brazenly assaulted the Pakistani capital of Rawalpindi last Saturday, leading to a 22-hour gunfight at Pakistan’s “Pentagon”. This served to accent the point of those who support the “surge”, such as Senator John McCain (R-AZ). “I think the great danger now is not an American pullout,” said McCain, while appearing on CNN Sunday. “I think the great danger now is a half-measure… trying to please all ends of the political spectrum.”

Appearing opposite Reed was Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who, when asked whether or not he would support the deployment of 40,000 more troops, replied “If that is the recommendation of General Petraeus and General McChrystal, who got it right in Iraq, I think Republicans almost overwhelmingly will support the president if that is his request.”

(Sources Associated Press, Providence Journal, New York Times, U.S. Government)