Premium ContentClick on Premium Content on the Featured navigation bar for information.
WASHINGTON — City life in Afghanistan seems calmer these days, Rep. Steve King said Tuesday.
The Iowa Republican just returned from a four-day fact-finding trip to Afghanistan with several other House members — his third trip to the war-torn country.
King contrasted the current situation in Afghanistan's major metropolitan areas with what he found during his 2008 visit: “The cities seem to be more peaceful and more orderly and a little bit cleaner.”
He said Afghanistan has been making progress and noted that the country has held national elections. The elections were marred by fraud, however.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai sought to address the fraud allegations during a meeting with the House members.
King described Karzai as an astute politician who understands the great sacrifices the United States is making in Afghanistan.
But King said success in Afghanistan will take longer, and possibly require more resources, than envisioned by the Obama administration. Obama announced last week that he is sending an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, with the goal of beginning to withdraw forces in 2011.
He said that Obama has adopted a “minimalist strategy” toward Afghanistan and that no one in Congress was satisfied by Obama's speech last week. “The left wants a date-certain (withdrawal) and they want it to be yesterday and they want everybody out, regardless of the consequences and however it might affect the destiny of free people in the world anywhere,” King said. “People on the right want national security, and we want to establish the principle that America doesn't back off.”
