U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia, held a conference call Tuesday with reporters around the state to talk about his recent trip to Afghanistan — and to talk about President Barack Obama’s plan to increase American troop levels there.
Chambliss said he flew into Dubai last Tuesday, met with American troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving, made a trek into areas of Afghanistan he hadn’t visited on previous occasions, then traveled to Pakistan for a day before returning to the U.S. on Sunday.
While there, Chambliss said he met with both military and civilian personnel, including Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
While there, Chambliss said he visited the Herat region in western Afghanistan “where a lot of the heavy fighting is going on and where most of the country’s poppies are grown.”
Efforts are being made to transition farmers in the region from opium poppies to other commercially viable crops, he said.
Chambliss said any future U.S. financial aid to Afghanistan should be conditional on Afghan President Hamid Karzai taking more aggressive steps to root out corruption in what he called “one of the most corrupt governments in the world.” Karzai also needs to work harder at defeating Hakani forces, which have become a more serious threat to stability in the region than the Taliban, he said.
He credited Pakistan’s military, saying it has been more aggressive in the last six months than at any time previous, but said it needs to be even more aggressive when it comes to denying opposition fighters the opportunity to flee across Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan for sanctuary.
“You can’t decouple the issue of stability in Afghanistan from the issue of stability in Pakistan,” Chambliss said, adding that, should the ruling government in Afghanistan fall, he didn’t see how the government in Pakistan could continue to stand.
Regarding the proposed surge, Chambliss said more troops are definitely needed to carry out the mission in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, he added, progress in Afghanistan will come at the cost of additional American casualties.
When asked by reporter Thomas Day of the Macon Telegraph whether he thinks the U.S. can pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by reducing spending and without any additional taxes, Chambliss said, “I think without a doubt we can.”
He sharply criticized democrats for rampant spending on “things we don’t need,” like universal health care and said cost is a factor, but war spending takes priority over domestic programs.
“The freedom and protection of the American people is the most important thing,” he said.
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Chambliss: War spending takes priority
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