US Senators Voice Doubts on Afghanistan Plan, Reuters, 15 July 2010

EXCERPT: "The Obama administration has not done enough to explain its goals for the war in Afghanistan, including what its exit strategy will be, U.S. senators said on Wednesday. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, that the American public needs better answers as the nine-year-old U.S.-led war shows few immediate signs of success against the resurgent Taliban.' There are a lot of people in this country who are very confused. ... There's a real need here in my view for clarity in terms of what actually can be accomplished,' Democratic Senator Jim Webb said at the committee hearing. Holbrooke defended the administration's approach, noting that President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 more U.S. troops into the fight, for total troop levels approaching 100,000 this summer, was mirrored by a three-fold increase in civilian aid workers helping Afghanistan improve governance and its own security forces."

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Related resource:
Hearing: Afghanistan: Governance and the Civilian Strategy, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 14 July 2010

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