Sen. Dick Durbin ‘skeptical’ about Afghanistan troop buildup

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Sen. Dick Durbin is doubtful about the new deployment of troops in Afghanistan that President Obama has ordered.

‘I’m skeptical as to whether 30,000 more troops will make a difference,’ Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, No. 2 Democratic leader in the Senate and mentor and friend to Obama, said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘ We have over 200,000 now when you count NATO forces, American forces and Afghan military forces.’

The U.S. military presence will grow to 98,000 by next summer, under the surge that Obama has ordered for Afghanistan, followed by a planned withdrawal of troops starting in July 2011, with the pace and endpoint of that draw-down to be determined by ‘conditions on the ground,’ the president announced in a nationally televised speech last week.

‘I understand the president took the time to reach this decision after more than seven years’ of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Durbin allowed. ‘We were at a point where we had to really reassess our strategy.’

Among the questions remaining: that announced intention for withdrawal starting in 2011 which the White House acknowledged would likely be ‘misinterpreted’’ even as the president was announcing his plans.

-- Mark Silva

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