Kerry Opposes Afghanistan Troop Increase

I think more Democrats weed to speak out on this.

During an interview with CNN’s John King, Sen. John Kerry argued that it would “irresponsible” to commit more troops to Afghanistan at a time when the legitimacy of the Afghanistan government is in doubt. Kerry’s comments came in the context of arguing that Obama shouldn’t be “cornered” into making a hasty decision:

It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country, when we don’t even have an election finished and know who the president is and what kind of government we’re working in with.

When our own commanding general tells us that a critical component of achieving our mission here is, in fact, good governance, and we’re living with a government that we know has to change and provide it, how could the president responsibly say, “Oh, they asked for more, sure — here they are”?

Watch it:

… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

I agree with Kerry’s key contention.  Although the conflict in Afghanistan is still so small that it does not compare to Vietnam, we need to avoid making a similar mistake.  In Vietnam, we supported a series of virtual dictators, beginning with Diem instead of supporting populist leaders.  Karzai, a Unocal employee, was installed by the Bush/GOP regime.  The corruption that pervaded the recent election demonstrates that supporting him will only turn Afghanis more against us.