WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Friday added to mounting pressure on the White House to avoid escalating the war in Afghanistan by calling for faster training of Afghan security forces instead of sending more U.S. troops into combat.
A leading Senate Republican quickly countered that deploying more American troops to Iraq is what helped turn that war around.
The Senate panel’s chairman, Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, had earlier raised concerns about a possible new troop buildup. But his proposal Friday to focus the U.S. mission in Afghanistan more on training than fighting was a blunt warning to the Obama administration — and it came after other Democratic congressional leaders raised similar concerns this week.
Levin said the trainers would help build a “surge” of 400,000 Afghan army and police officers a year earlier than initially planned. The term “surge” is most recently associated with the 2007 U.S. troop buildup in Iraq that helped bring the nation back from the brink of civil war.
Levin did not immediately know how many trainers would be needed, and he conceded that many would be U.S. military troops. He said more NATO forces should also help.
Additionally, Levin said the U.S. needs to shift its trucks, weapons and other equipment still in Iraq to outfit the Afghan security forces. And he said more efforts need to be made to help reconcile local Taliban fighters with law-abiding forces.
Levin’s comments came as the Obama administration weighs whether to boost the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000 he has approved to be there by the end of the year.
Shortly after Levin finished outlining his plan, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he also thinks training for the Afghan forces must be stepped up, and quickly. But he said a “significant” number of additional U.S. combat troops also must be sent to Afghanistan to clear out the Taliban and keep violent extremists from returning.
What Levin said
From Sen. Carl Levin’s speech on the war in Afghanistan:
• “We should increase and accelerate our efforts to support the Afghan security forces in their efforts to become self-sufficient in delivering security to their nation — before we consider whether to increase U.S. combat forces above the levels already planned for the next few months.”
• “These steps include increasing the size of the Afghan Army and police much faster than presently planned; providing more trainers for the Afghan Army and police than presently planned; providing them more equipment than presently planned; and working to separate local Taliban fighters from their leaders and attract them to the side of the government as we did in Iraq.”
• “The larger our own military footprint there, the more our enemies can seek to drive a wedge between us and the Afghan population, spreading the falsehood that we seek to dominate a Muslim nation.”
