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Dick Lugar: Obama 'lacks vision' on Afghanistan

The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Tuesday that President Barack Obama “lacks vision of success” in Afghanistan, fewer than 48 hours after Obama announced that U.S. forces had killed Osama bin Laden.

Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), who has been outspoken against American engagement in Libya, said the war in Afghanistan does not have a “strategic value,” after almost a decade in the region and with “al Qaeda largely displaced” from the country it once was concentrated in.

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“President Obama must be forthcoming on a definition of success in Afghanistan based on U.S. vital interests and a sober analysis of what is possible to achieve,” Lugar said. “With al Qaeda largely displaced from the country, but franchised in other locations, Afghanistan does not carry a strategic value that justifies 100,000 American troops and a $100 billion per year cost, especially given current fiscal restraints.”

Lugar’s criticism of the cost of the Afghanistan war comes on the heels of several senators challenging the billions of dollars in U.S. aid sent to Pakistan, since Osama bin Laden was killed just an hour north of Islamabad.

The President has planned a troop drawdown in Afghanistan beginning this summer, but some skeptics question whether that is feasible considering the scale of insurgent attacks. Lugar acknowledged the inherent American security interest in not having the Taliban reclaim the country’s government, but questioned Obama on what his vision is for an exit strategy.

“Clearly it would not be in our national security interest to have the Taliban take over the government or have Afghanistan reestablished as a terrorist safe haven. But the President has not offered a vision of what success in Afghanistan would entail or how progress toward success would be measured,” Lugar said. “The outcome in Afghanistan when U.S. forces leave will be imperfect, but the President has not defined which imperfections would be tolerable. There has been much discussion of our counter-insurgency strategy and methods, but very little explanation of what metrics must be achieved before the country is considered secure.”


Eric D. Schwerin
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eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
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