Stay with Afghanistan, Giffords says after visit

By Bill Hess
Herald/Review

SIERRA VISTA — The U.S. cannot walk away from Afghanistan, Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said Wednesday.

The Arizona 8th Congressional District congresswoman said President Barack Obama must be steady in his support of America’s presence in Afghanistan, even though there is a “growing debate” among Democrats calling for the United States to pull out.

She returned Tuesday from a four-day trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Two other Democratic members of the House went along — Adam Smith of Washington and Bobby Bright of Alabama. All three are members of the House Armed Services Committee, and Smith, who is chairman of the subcommittee on terrorism and unconventional threats, led the delegation.

The situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are a re-emerging threat to coalition forces and the Afghan people, “is extremely complicated,” Giffords said.

Noting Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world “and one of the least literate on the planet,” Arizona’s 8th Congressional District representative said the United States stepped away from that country too early, instead putting emphasis on Iraq.

While Iraq had to be addressed, thinking Afghanistan would do all right once the Taliban and al-Qaida were suppressed in 2002 proved to be wrong, the congresswoman said.

Although al-Qaida followed the United States and its coalition partners into Iraq as a way to harass American forces while trying to gain control of that Arab nation, the Taliban, who violently ruled Afghanistan after the Soviet military left that country, rebuilt their strength to the detriment of the Afghan people.

That has led Gen. Stanley McChrystal to report to his defense bosses that more troops are needed, and that proposal is winding its way through the Defense Department and the White House, Giffords said.

Meanwhile, McChrystal, who briefed the three-member congressional delegation on many issues, is taking a page out of the Iraq play book and putting forces throughout Afghanistan to establish stability, she said.

Whether that will be successful “is too soon to tell,” Giffords said.

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