Washington: Sen John McCain says President
Barack Obama will make a huge error if he does not
substantially increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan.
The Arizona senator, who was Obama`s Republican opponent
in last year`s presidential election, said it is folly to
think the Taliban can be allowed to grow stronger in
Afghanistan without benefiting al-Qaida, the terrorist network
that attacked the United States in 2001.
"They will become inextricably tied," McCain told CNN`s
"State of the Union" in an interview for broadcast today.
McCain said he sympathised with Obama, who faces a
difficult choice about Afghanistan troop levels and whether to
focus the fighting more narrowly on terrorists or more broadly
on Taliban insurgents.
McCain said he did not think the United States can win in
Afghanistan unless Obama sends at least 40,000 more troops to
augment the 68,000 now there. He agreed with those who see
40,000 new troops as the desire of Gen Stanley McChrystal, the
top US commander in Afghanistan, although McChrystal gave
Obama a range of options.
To reject the advice of those who say a significantly
larger US presence is needed, McCain said, "would be an error
of historic proportions."
McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, also said he didn`t think the Obama administration
was "trying to muzzle" McChrystal from speaking out about his
war-fighting approach.
Bureau Report
