Today it was announced that that 14 Americans died in Afghanistan in two separate incidents involving helicopters.
For weeks, cable news and talk radio have gone back and forth about how quickly President Obama should move on General Stanley McChrystal's request for at least 40,000 more troops in the region. The discussions have generally been with Democratic supporters of Barack Obama arguing that unlike the previous administration, this president is being thoughtful and deliberative in making such an important move.
His opponents call it dithering.
But might there be another voice out there in Congress represented on Sunday talk? A representative of the part of the country that doesn't want any escalation of troops? We saw that yesterday on CBS' Face The Nation in the person of Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russ Feingold, who said he’s preparing an effort (along with other members of the House) to try to block any increase in troops for Afghanistan.
"I’m working with people to prepare for that possibility,” Feingold said. “There will be resistance to this if necessary… We will do what we can to prevent this mistake.”
Feingold said he didn't think that the Taliban in Afghanistan would allow the Al Qaeda back into the country, saying, "The idea that the Taliban is going to see it as in their interest to have the world headquarters of Al Qaeda back in Afghanistan, I think is dubious,” Feingold said. “The number one issue is going after Al Qaeda, not going after the Taliban.”
Although not mentioned by name by Feingold, Ohio Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich was sounding equally anti-war-like on C-SPAN about an hour before Feingold's comments.
The congressman said, "The sooner we get out of there, the better." He also said the U.S. should be finding ways to rebuild that country (it's called nation-building, and that's what seemingly everyone who wants to get more involved militarily in Afghanistan seems to ultimately be suggesting). On the idea that the U.S. needs more troops in the region to win the conflict, Kucinich said simply, "It's not going to work."
Back on Face, perennial Sunday morning favorite John McCain preceded his Senate ally on campaign finance reform. McCain wouldn't take host Bob Schieffer's bait on what he thought of Dick Cheney's comments earlier this week that Obama was 'dithering' in his deliberations regarding Afghanistan.
The 2008 GOP standard-bearer said he wouldn't have used "that language," but otherwise refused to answer the question if Cheney's comments were helpful or hurtful to the GOP. "Let's support our president," McCain said, trying to give cover for Obama to make the large troop increases, saying that it was inevitable that the president would get his from the political left, and therefore needed the Republican Party to be supportive (and not sniping, from the likes of Cheney, John Boehner and basically the rest of the GOP).
On CNN, Utah's Orrin Hatch echoed the remarks made by Karl Rove last week — saying that "some" are saying that Obama is waiting until after the gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia next week to make his announcement on Afghanistan, with the theory being that announcing a surfeit of troops will depress turnout of Democrats in those two elections. Ohio's Sherrod Brown immediately jumped on Hatch for making that remark.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.