kalikshama
Posts: 14805
Joined: 8/8/2010
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Bring home the troops.
http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-07/news/31305459_1_afghan-security-forces-afghan-president-lynch
WASHINGTON - During one of Representative Stephen F. Lynch’s early visits to Afghanistan, a crush of angry protesters had to be forced out of the path of his convoy with rifle butts. When his plane approached Iraq in the weeks after the 2003 invasion, enemy mortars were still striking the runway.
The South Boston Democrat, who won his seat in a special election on Sept. 11, 2001, has traveled to the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan 21 times, more often than almost any other member of Congress.
He has often been the only Democrat in the visiting delegation. The fact-finding missions - often into savaged neighborhoods, his blood type written on his body armor in case of attack - helped make him much more supportive of the decadelong war effort in Afghanistan than his Bay State colleagues.
Not anymore. Lynch, frustrated by a lack of progress, is now breaking with the Obama administrationand calling on the president to speed up American withdrawal from Afghanistan by at least a year.
“I don’t think we are going to get there in 2014,’’ said Lynch, speaking about the administration’s timeline for withdrawal. “The pace of progress is so slow that the law of diminishing returns will apply. I don’t think there will be any added measure of benefit that is worth the sacrifice to stay an extra year.’’
In a wide-ranging interview late last month, Lynch said his evolving view was prompted by recent visits and one-to-one talks with service members. Matters were made worse by the violence sparked by the accidental burning of Korans by US service members and then the slaying of 17 Afghan civilians, reportedly by an Army sergeant.
“The recent events have been a real setback,’’ Lynch said in his Capitol Hill office, decorated with photos of some of his travels, including one with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai. “We are going to have to do a reset on our expectations and try something different in terms of helping them get to where they need to be. But I don’t think it involves a massive military presence.’’
The Pentagon has already begun drawing down troops from the surge in force levels Obama ordered in 2009 - which Lynch supported - and will bring home 23,000 more by September. The White House wants to withdraw the remaining 65,000 US service members by the end of 2014 and hand over security to newly trained Afghan forces.
Lynch, considered an authority on the war by his colleagues, serves on a key national security oversight committee and cochairs a congressional task force on terrorism financing.
One of his most pressing concerns is the slow pace of preparing Afghan security forces to carry the battle on their own. While progress is being made, he doubts that US forces staying longer will make much a difference in the end.
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RE: Oh what the fucking fuck??? - 
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