Coffman bombs Afghanistan plan

Says Obama’s plan falls short; Udall praises it

Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer

Monday, March 30, 2009

A conservative U.S. lawmaker from Colorado with extensive military experience has raised serious questions concerning President Obama’s new war strategy for Afghanistan.

Congressman Mike Coffman of Lone Tree expressed his concerns last week in a closed door briefing to the House Armed Services Committee, of which he is a member. He pointed to several areas which he believes Obama’s plan falls short.

Coffman is concerned that Obama’s strategy does not deploy troops inside rural Afghan villages where terrorists may be hiding.

He also said Obama’s plan should include a strategy for assisting Afghan farmers to harvest crops other than poppies, which are used to cultivate opium. The Afghan government has destroyed thousands of acres of poppy fields in its war on illicit drugs.

“It is irresponsible for this administration to be throwing additional personnel and resources into Afghanistan without having fully developed the necessary planning first,” said Coffman, a retired Marine Corps Major who served in Iraq.

The congressman does, however, support Obama’s recent plan for withdrawing all “combat” troops from Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, because it leaves in place a residual force of up to 50,000 troops until the end of the following year and offers a flexible timetable.

Obama on Friday announced a new war strategy for Afghanistan that focuses on crushing al-Qaida militants there and in Pakistan.

U.S. military in Afghanistan will shift the emphasis of its mission to training and expanding the Afghan army so that it can take the lead in counter-insurgency operations and allow U.S. troops to leave, said the president.

Obama plans to send 4,000 more U.S. troops to train the army, along with hundreds of civilian personnel to improve the Afghan government’s delivery of basic services. The force will be in addition to the 17,000 combat troops Obama has already ordered sent to Afghanistan.

“For the American people, this border region has become the most dangerous place in the world,” said the president in remarks Friday to the American people. “But this is not simply an American problem. The safety of the world is at stake.”

Obama set no timetable for the strategy but he said he would set benchmarks for the Afghan government to crack down on corruption and ensure it used foreign aid to help its people.

The United States will also reach out to Afghanistan’s neighbors, step up military and financial aid to stabilize Pakistan, and ask NATO allies to send more troops for elections due in August and to help train the Afghan security forces.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, who has for years been a proponent of escalating efforts in Afghanistan, praised Obama for his new strategy.

“Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front in the fight against Islamic terrorism,” said Udall, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I criticized the previous administration for its misguided strategic priorities in concentrating troops and resources in Iraq, given the renewed threat of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and the growing need for additional focus on Afghanistan.”

But Coffman raised serious concerns over unanswered questions concerning the president’s new strategy.

He believes the surge in Iraq was successful, and he said it was successful because U.S. ground forces moved outside of the larger and more secure base camps into small forward operating bases inside of Iraqi neighborhoods and villages. Coffman said the same should be done in Afghanistan.

“The added security brought about the conditions necessary to allow the political process to move forward,” read a statement from Coffman’s office.

“We have been continuously briefed that the Taliban have infiltrated these villages and are intimidating the population,” continued the congressman. “These villages must be a greater part of the equation.”

He added that part of the president’s new strategy should be focusing on Afghan farmers who lost their poppy fields to the government’s war on opium production. Coffman is concerned that U.S. ground forces will be exposed to higher casualties by requiring them to destroy poppy fields.

“Giving the farmers seeds to plant wheat will help them in the long run, but it won’t give them the income that they need to feed their families in the short run,” he said.

“We should not be expanding our role in the region until this administration comes up with a comprehensive plan,” Coffman added.

Reuters contributed to this story.

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