KABUL, Afghanistan — Sen. John McCain on Sunday visited the southern Afghan province of Helmand, where he said NATO forces are at a stalemate with insurgents. Though Helmand has for years been the responsibility of British forces, McCain said the U.S. will focus more on the region — the heartland of the Taliban movement and a center for opium-poppy production.
“We’re going to have additional troops and additional help,” McCain said of the country’s south. “And I want to emphasize again, I think it’s going to get harder before it gets easier, just like the surge in Iraq was.”
President-elect Barack Obama asked McCain to report back to him on what he learns on the visit, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who accompanied McCain on the trip to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Iraq. The Associated Press
