US Senator: Russ Feingold on Afghanistan

I just made my first post on our Campaign Blog, and have included the text below. Let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Russ

Russ Feingold
U.S. Senator

here

A Better Foreign Policy

Much of the focus in Washington has been on getting our country back on the road toward economic stability, and rightfully so. The problems we face in this area are enormous and it's going to take policymakers working together to ensure that we come out of this recession in a fundamentally better position than we were going into it.

However, before the week is over I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight again my commitment to a strong and stable America abroad as well. I am pleased that President Obama has announced plans to significantly reduce the U.S. military presence in Iraq by August 2010. What a world of difference from the previous administration, which refused to even discuss reasonable timelines. I am concerned, however, that as many as 50,000 U.S. troops may remain in Iraq beyond that time, and question some of the purposes for which troops will be used and whether those purposes will further the stability of the region or our own national security.

After years of a failed foreign policy that distracted us from defeating al Qaeda and its affiliates, I am encouraged that President Obama and his administration have chosen to increase their focus on where the 9/11 attacks originated - Afghanistan.

However, a military escalation there, without an overall strategy in place that will actually work in Afghanistan, could alienate the Afghan people and make it more difficult to achieve our overall goal of defeating al Qaeda, which has a safe haven along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

In light of the administration's decision to increase our country's troop presence in Afghanistan, I wanted to share with you once again a piece I wrote in October regarding this very issue.

here

After too long, we finally have the pieces in place to get our foreign policy right. Now is the time.