[progchat_action] Senator DIFI - Ok with scrapping Afghan July 2011 deadline
Steven Robinson
To Him, Absolutely'
By Sam Stein
Huffington Post
June 27, 2010
A senior Senate Democrat on foreign policy issues said on Sunday that the
president's pledged July 2011 timeline for a troop drawdown in Afghanistan
was malleable to the requests of military command.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cali.), whose hawkish grounding has angered
progressive in the past, likely facilitated that anger again, when she told
"Fox News Sunday" that if General David Petraeus asked for more troops next
summer, he should be granted them.
"I would say give it to him, absolutely," said the California Democrat.
"Now, let's talk about the deadline. This is a transition point toward the
beginning of a withdrawal or a drawdown as Petraeus said in his transcript
before the Armed Services [Committee]. And I think he has flexibility
realistically. Ten years is a long time to fight a war, particularly with
what happened before the 10 years. And so we need to understand that [we
have] to get the military trained, get the government online, secure and
stabilize, and I think do away with the drugs to a great extent, because the
drugs are now fueling the Taliban."
Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, has long sounded
warnings about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. But her comments
on Sunday appear to be the most explicit endorsement of scrapping the July
2011 timeframe for a troop drawdown -- should circumstances demand it.
It's a position that will only fuel suspicion that Congress lacks the
political will to actually stick to the timeline for withdrawal (by, say,
using the power of the purse to affect it). Indeed, Feinstein seemed to
fully cede legislative influence over the course of the war when she granted
during the Fox News interview that the United States should "put all of our
eggs in the Petraeus basket at this stage."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/27/feinstein-petraeus-afghanistan-troop
s_n_626983.html
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