Breaking from the Washington Independent in an interview with Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat revealed that he is against a troop increase in Afghanistan, signaling a significant difference between him and his Primary challenger Rep. Joe Sestak who called for a measured increase.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Specter, instead seems to be more receptive of the approach put forth by Senator Carl Levin (D- Michigan) that the mission needs to be an international effort which focuses on training and increasing Afghan troops and Im assuming police forces. A significant problem in the whole situation is that there is no central Afghan government. I would like to see the Dems and Specter go with Levin on this proposal because a short term troop surge of 40,000 more US Troops into Afghanistan will be a mere "drop in the bucket" if a series of realistic objective goals like this are not developed and implemented.
The Soviet Army's attempt to keep throwing more and more resources into Afghanistan in the 1980s essentially resulted in bankruptcy. Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), in a recent Tribune Review article realistically summed up the impact of continuing in Afghanistan with no realistic goal posts set by stating an objective reality... that the war debt, that is the bill for the wars that George W. Bush sent us to fight, placing the burdens on our children and grand children's backs cannot continue. That war bill as Murtha assessed will be start becoming due in about seven or eight years and could be catastrophic when coupled with today's economic climate. Thus, the 40,000 troop increase will cost the taxpayers significant sums of dollars, when there appears to be little reward for this huge risk.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/...
Sestak's approach of wanting a measured troop increase as opposed to transitioning to an Afghan training and development mission seems out of step with "fiscal and economic reality" particularly when he recently asserted that the Obama Administration and Democratic Party oversold the stimulus package, just 158 billion into the 787 billion plan.
http://www.pa2010.com/...
What a contention like this does, aside from enabling Pat Toomey to lick his chops, is to discredit the jobs that have been saved. Anyone who thought that the stimulus was the "magic wand" to cure problems as opposed to trying to stop the avalanche... is unrealistically looking at the mess the Obama Administration inherited.
As for the war, it looks like Snarlin Arlen could be a strong ally for the Levin amendment, an effort which would focus on training and set realistic goals, instead of sending more of our troops to Afghanistan and our country towards bankruptcy.