By PHILIP ELLIOTT (AP) – 5 days ago
WASHINGTON : A senior Republican congressman said Wednesday that President Barack Obama was endangering U.S. troops in Afghanistan by spending time weighing his next move in Afghanistan. The White House called the lawmaker’s comment a “bunch of game playing.”
Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he does not understand the delay from Obama, whose top commander in Afghanistan made his recommendation to the president more than a month ago. Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, told The Washington Times that he doesn’t understand why the United States has commanders if the civilian leaders ignore their advice for weeks on end.
“Listen, you’ve got American lives on the line over there,” Cantor said on the same day that Obama held a meeting at the White House to discuss the war with his national security team. “As long as they are delaying, that puts in jeopardy, I believe, our men and women.”
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, in his assessment of the conflict, has said the United States would likely lose the war if the administration did not send more troops. While McChrystal has not made a public call for a specific number of additional forces, he is widely believed to want between 30,000 and 40,000 more troops.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs disputed Cantor’s comments, adding that Obama is moving deliberately on the recommendations.
“And I would say this to Congressman Cantor and everybody else: the American people deserve an assessment that’s beyond game playing,” Gibbs told reporters during his daily briefing.
“The men and women in Afghanistan that we’ve sent to serve and protect our freedom deserve that. The men and women that might be sent to Afghanistan to serve and protect our freedom deserve that, as do their families and every other American.”
Obama, top military officials, diplomats and members of the Cabinet met shortly after Gibbs’ remarks to continue studying the McChrystal report. Officials said the meeting was the second in a series of five that Obama had tentatively scheduled.
The White House also noted that Cantor didn’t criticize President George W. Bush when he didn’t act on Gen. David McKiernan’s request for more troops. Obama replaced McKiernan with McChrystal.
“I don’t recall Congressman Cantor saying that when Gen. David McKiernan’s request for 30,000 additional troops sat on the desk of the previous commander in chief, I don’t remember him going to a newspaper or on television saying that that commander in chief was endangering the lives of men and women in Afghanistan,” Gibbs said.
Cantor’s spokesman brushed off the criticism from the White House podium.
“When President Obama said that the mission in Afghanistan was a war of necessity, Mr. Cantor was one of the first to support him,” Brad Dayspring said. “The fact is that our commanders in the field have conveyed a clear sense of urgency that a timely decision by the commander in chief could ultimately determine the success or failure of the mission. Mr. Gibbs knows that.”
Copyright AP Newswire