Another Faint Sign of Congressional Wariness About Afghanistan

Another Faint Sign of Congressional Wariness About Afghanistan

By Spencer Ackerman 8/3/09 3:34 PM


True fact: talk to the advisers to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s 60-day strategy review on Afghanistan and they say that they’re attuned to an erosion of support for the Afghanistan war in Washington. They may be a bit jumpy. Polling Report, which aggregates polls, doesn’t show much of an erosion, and it isn’t clear one is currently occurring. Among political leaders, the default mode is to ignore Afghanistan or endorse the Obama administration’s efforts, with the notable exception of Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.). While McChrystal’s people are probably preparing for some imminent drop in support, perhaps the more surprising development is how a war going as poorly as Afghanistan is hasn’t faced more public opposition.

But here’s one faint sign of congressional pushback. While I was out on Friday, DOD Buzz’s Colin Clark reported that the House Appropriations Committee attached to a spending bill a statement that it was “concerned” about an “open-ended U.S. commitment” to Afghanistan. Clark calls it “the first official expression of deep concern on the Hill about the war in Afghanistan,” and while his report makes the panel’s statement sound a bit anodyne, by comparison to the crickets-and-tumbleweed that Afghanistan generally produces, that might be true. ... http://washingtonindependent.com/53621/another-faint-sign-of-congressional-wariness-about-afghanistan