Marshall returns from Afghanistan, calls current situation a ‘real challenge’

Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., returns from a six-member congressional delegation to Afghanistan today.

Marshall met with soldiers from the Georgia National Guard deployed to the country, as well as Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. In a phone interview Tuesday from Nairobi, Kenya, Marshall sounded less than encouraged by what he saw.

“It’s a real challenge,” he said. “It’s clear that the Taliban’s level of sophistication and effectiveness has been nothing but increasing in the past several years.”

Marshall did lend support to the current U.S.-led strategy in the country and insisted that any reductions in violence would have to include cooperation with Afghan police, military and local tribal leaders. “The key to success lies with the population,” he said. “If history is any measure, it’s going to be very difficult to rally the diverse tribes, warlords, et cetera, to one process.”

He parried war critics — including Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and conservative commentator George Will — who have advocated a drawdown of American troops in the country.

In his Washington Post column Tuesday, Will called for troops in the country to be moved “offshore” and to instead fight the war with unmanned drones, cruise missiles and small Special Forces teams.

Feingold, in a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, called for ending the nation building mission in favor of a “more focused military mission that includes targeted strikes on Taliban and al-Qaida leaders.”

He added that “the operatives we sought (after Sept. 11, 2001) have largely been captured or killed or crossed the border into Pakistan.”

Marshall said that such suggestions were “premature” and that “anybody who argues that the whole point of our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq was to (capture or kill) the culprits of 9/11 ... is out to lunch.” Marshall, a decorated Vietnam veteran, warned that American casualties in Afghanistan are unlikely to abate anytime soon.

“Afghanistan is a much more challenging environment than Iraq,” he said. “I’m afraid that we’re going to go through a really tough period.”

This was the latest of about a dozen visits Marshall has made to Afghanistan — he could not recall exactly how many congressional visits he has made to the country.

Marshall’s return flight home stopped in Kenya so the delegation could meet with officials from the U.S. Africa Command.

He was joined on the delegation by Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., Rep. Tim Waltz, D-Minn., and Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.