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Wednesday, December 02, 2009
New Mexicans Divided on Obama's Plan
By Michael Coleman
Journal Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - New Mexico's U.S. senators expressed skepticism Tuesday night about President Obama's plan to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, questioning whether it will achieve the goals he laid out in his speech at West Point.
At least one of the state's three U.S. House members supported the president's plan.
Back home, other New Mexicans were divided about the prospect of risking even more U.S. lives in Afghanistan.
Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, both Democrats, told the Journal they are worried that Obama's plan to stabilize Afghanistan with more U.S. troops will not work.
"I'm not sure sending 30,000 more troops is going to accomplish the objectives he laid out. I hope it does," Bingaman said. "Clearly, the key is going to be how quickly we can train up and shift responsibility to the Afghan military."
"I remain unconvinced that sending additional troops advances our national security interests in the region," Udall said.
Rep. Martin Heinrich, an Albuquerque Democrat and one of New Mexico's three U.S. House members, was more optimistic. Reps. Harry Teague and Ben Ray Luján, also Democrats, were not available for comment.
"I think he's headed in the right direction," Heinrich said after Obama's nationally televised speech. "I think it's a strong plan."
Heinrich said Obama's pledge to shift the U.S. focus from combat to counterinsurgency helped win his support for the Afghan plan. "That's critical for us to accomplish our goals, measure our success and have a time frame," for withdrawal, Heinrich said.
Mark Rudd, a famous anti-Vietnam War activist and Democrat who lives in Albuquerque, and Allen Weh, a Vietnam combat veteran and Republican candidate for governor, see the Afghan war effort in acutely different terms.
Rudd, in a telephone interview Tuesday, said sending more troops to Afghanistan doesn't make sense.
"It's the same illusion the U.S. military has been working on forever — that our military will bludgeon people into submission and somehow win their hearts and minds," Rudd said.
Weh, a retired Marine Corps colonel who lives in Albuquerque, said destroying terrorists in Afghanistan before they strike America makes good sense. Weh credited Obama for listening to military leaders who requested the troops, but he criticized the president for signaling that the effort will not be open-ended.
"You don't tell them when you're leaving; you make it clear to the enemy we intend to prevail and we will do whatever is necessary to prevail," Weh said. "We have to prevail if we're going to defeat al-Qaida."
The views of Rudd and Weh — as well as the somewhat divergent opinions of New Mexico's all-Democratic congressional delegation — reflected the range of opinion in the state about the ongoing war effort in Afghanistan.
State Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, said he has misgivings about the president's direction.
"My immediate reaction is just a sinking feeling of déjà vu," Ortiz y Pino said. "This is feeling so much like Vietnam or Iraq."
Micah Shaw, president of the Albuquerque chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, said history is not on America's side in Afghanistan. He said the way to prevent terrorism is by building bridges or hospitals and schools — something the U.S. is also doing in Afghanistan — not killing people.
"History has shown us multiple times that fighting terrorism with conventional warfare is not effective," he said. "But I feel that humanitarian work is most definitely needed over there. Assaultive combat is not humanitarian."
Heather Wilson, an Air Force Academy graduate and former Republican congresswoman from Albuquerque, said she respects the U.S. military leadership's analysis of troop needs in Afghanistan. She lauded Obama for heeding their requests.
But Wilson, in a phone interview moments before Obama's speech, said his call for an eventual withdrawal smacked of domestic politics. She called it his way of "throwing a bone to the far left."
"The thing that concerns me ... is it's (Obama's proposal) more focused on keeping everyone happy at home than doing what the military needs to do to complete the mission," Wilson said.
Fred Harris, a former Democratic U.S. senator and University of New Mexico professor, withheld judgement on Obama's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. But he complimented the president's methodical approach.
"He went about it in exactly the right way, being very careful to get all the advice he could get," Harris said. "The most important thing is to make it clear to the American people — as he sees it — what our goals are."
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