Reuters Summit-McCain optimistic Obama will send troops
(For other news from the Reuters Washington Summit, click here)
* McCain says troop surge could pay dividends in year
* Complains of conflicting signals from Obama team
* Not accusing Obama of dithering
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Senator John McCain said on Wednesday he is guardedly optimistic that President Barack Obama will send thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan but that it is time for his long Afghan review to end.
The Republican, at a round-table interview with Reuters reporters, said it would be "a mistake of historic proportions" for Obama not to accept the recommendations of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, who has requested tens of thousands more troops and beefed-up training of Afghan forces.
"But I do have confidence that the president will make the right decision," McCain said, basing his belief on the fact that Obama has been listening to the advice of McChrystal and other military leaders like David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command.
Obama has been debating options for Afghanistan with his senior advisers over the past few weeks and is expected to make up his mind in coming weeks, possibly before leaving on a trip to Asia on Nov. 11.
McCain said he believed Obama would agree to send as many as 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, perhaps fewer, in a surge aimed at reversing a resurgent Taliban eight years after the United States launched a war there in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
He said it could take a year to 18 months to reverse the deteriorating situation there, and that in spite of a poll showing Americans tired of the war, he believes Obama, with his popular support, could get the American people behind him.
But McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a Vietnam-era warplane pilot who was his party's nominee for president last year, was sharply critical of Obama's weeks-long review of Afghanistan strategy.
He said the Obama administration has sent conflicting signals on when it planned to announce its new strategy.
He pointed to advisers such as chief of staff Rahm Emanuel have said no decision would be announced until Afghanistan's disputed election is resolved, while Defense Secretary Robert Gates said a decision cannot wait until then.
"I don't get it," McCain said.
Obama himself told NBC on Wednesday that he may well reach a decision on a new strategy before Afghanistan's Nov. 7 presidential election run-off, but not announce it until after the election is resolved.
"Look, I want the president to use deliberate speed, I'm not accusing him of dithering, but every single day we wait is another day before the proper number of troops gets over there to implement the strategy, and every day tragically there are more casualties," he said.
"The longer we delay in getting sufficient forces over there, the more danger these young men and women are in. So I would like to see the president go ahead and make the announcement," McCain said. (For more on the Reuters Washington Summit, see [nN19208783]) (For summit blog: blogs.reuters.com/summits/) (Additional reporting by Simon Denyer and Patricia Wilson, editing by Anthony Boadle)
* McCain says troop surge could pay dividends in year
* Complains of conflicting signals from Obama team
* Not accusing Obama of dithering
By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Senator John McCain said on Wednesday he is guardedly optimistic that President Barack Obama will send thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan but that it is time for his long Afghan review to end.
The Republican, at a round-table interview with Reuters reporters, said it would be "a mistake of historic proportions" for Obama not to accept the recommendations of the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, who has requested tens of thousands more troops and beefed-up training of Afghan forces.
"But I do have confidence that the president will make the right decision," McCain said, basing his belief on the fact that Obama has been listening to the advice of McChrystal and other military leaders like David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command.
Obama has been debating options for Afghanistan with his senior advisers over the past few weeks and is expected to make up his mind in coming weeks, possibly before leaving on a trip to Asia on Nov. 11.
McCain said he believed Obama would agree to send as many as 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, perhaps fewer, in a surge aimed at reversing a resurgent Taliban eight years after the United States launched a war there in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
He said it could take a year to 18 months to reverse the deteriorating situation there, and that in spite of a poll showing Americans tired of the war, he believes Obama, with his popular support, could get the American people behind him.
But McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a Vietnam-era warplane pilot who was his party's nominee for president last year, was sharply critical of Obama's weeks-long review of Afghanistan strategy.
He said the Obama administration has sent conflicting signals on when it planned to announce its new strategy.
He pointed to advisers such as chief of staff Rahm Emanuel have said no decision would be announced until Afghanistan's disputed election is resolved, while Defense Secretary Robert Gates said a decision cannot wait until then.
"I don't get it," McCain said.
Obama himself told NBC on Wednesday that he may well reach a decision on a new strategy before Afghanistan's Nov. 7 presidential election run-off, but not announce it until after the election is resolved.
"Look, I want the president to use deliberate speed, I'm not accusing him of dithering, but every single day we wait is another day before the proper number of troops gets over there to implement the strategy, and every day tragically there are more casualties," he said.
"The longer we delay in getting sufficient forces over there, the more danger these young men and women are in. So I would like to see the president go ahead and make the announcement," McCain said. (For more on the Reuters Washington Summit, see [nN19208783]) (For summit blog: blogs.reuters.com/summits/) (Additional reporting by Simon Denyer and Patricia Wilson, editing by Anthony Boadle)
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