Lee returns from Afghan trip, airs support for troop increase
WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Lee, R-Clarence, returned Monday from a two-day trip to Afghanistan with other lawmakers, and he said the trip made him more inclined to support an increase in U. S. troops there.
“I was very impressed with the people I met,” Lee said. “And there was an overall push, not only from those in charge but from those soldiers on the ground, that they felt that if they had more support, they could have a successful mission.”
An American success in Afghanistan is important not just to prevent terrorism, but to make sure that the Taliban’s influence does not overwhelm Pakistan, the nuclear-armed nation next door, Lee said.
“As goes Afghanistan, so goes the region,” he said.
Lee — part of a bipartisan six-member congressional delegation — visited Kabul and Kandahar, the war-torn country’s two largest cities, along with several U. S. military facilities and the village of Nawa.
The lawmakers met with Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, as well as other military leaders. Lee also met with troops from the Buffalo area as well as Scott Dempsey, a U. S. Agency for International Development official from Amherst.
Lee said Nicholson provided the best answer for why U. S. troops have been in Afghanistan for eight years without routing the Taliban, the ultraconservative Islamist sect that once harbored al-Qaida.
According to Nicholson, “We set up a variety of outposts, so we were basically covering a very small area geographically and not getting out and fully engaging the countryside and eliminating the Taliban,” Lee said.
Calling that a flawed strategy, Lee added: “The only way we’re going to get it done, and be successful, is to have more troops and get fully engaged out in the countryside.”
Along with fighting the Taliban, U. S. forces will have to win the support of the Afghan people, Lee added.
“If we don’t win them over, it won’t happen,” he said.
The lawmakers’ visit to Nawa, in the volatile Helmand province, proves that progress can be made in Afghanistan, Lee said. The U. S. military has begun to work with the population there, and the lawmakers were able to walk around the village, which only weeks ago U. S. troops patrolled in Humvees.
Residents there “are slowly starting to trust the Americans,” Lee said.
Lee’s trip came as President Obama contemplates a recommendation from the American commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, that the U. S. add 40,000 troops to the effort there.
Lee said McChrystal should testify before Congress to spell out the need for those troops, adding that he was confident the addition of those troops could make the U. S. mission in Afghanistan a success.
“I felt there was an end in sight,” Lee added.
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