Boehner Warns Obama Against Delaying on Afghanistan Strategy
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Monday took aim at the White House and Democrats for setting the stage for delaying a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.
“The current political uncertainty should not be used as a pretext for the White House to back away from the counter-insurgency strategy the President announced in March,— Boehner said in a statement. “General McChrystal’s assessment says that without timely reinforcements our efforts to deny al Qaeda and the Taliban a safe haven in Afghanistan may end in failure. It’s time for the Obama Administration to give our commander on the ground the resources he needs to better protect our troops and achieve the goals the President outlined in March.—
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) had both raised questions about the current government of Afghanistan in the wake of that country’s disputed and reportedly fraud-ridden presidential election.
Emanuel said on CNN on Sunday that it would be “irresponsible— to decide whether to send more troops if “you haven’t done a thorough analysis of whether, in fact, there’s an Afghan partner ready to fill that space that the U.S. troops would create and become a true partner in governing the Afghan country.—
Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made similar comments on the Sunday talk shows.
Boehner and other top Republicans have been urging the Obama administration to act quickly, while Democrats have generally given the president wide latitude to take his time as he conducts his strategy review.