A member of the Senate Arms Services Committee, South Carolina U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham says the situation in Afghanistan has gotten worse. Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Graham says the United States must deploy more troops in the region. Graham says more troops and resources are also needed from NATO allies.

“Afghanistan has deteriorated. In July of last year, the President said when he was a candidate for office that Afghanistan not Iraq was the central battlefront on the war on Terror. I disagreed then because at that time Iraq hung in the balance, Iraq is more stable. The President is right, Afghanistan is now the central battlefront on the War on Terror. That means more of everything is needed there, more troops, more political engagement, more economic engagement.”

Graham says his fellow members of Congress must come to the realization that securing Afghanistan is now job one as far as effectively fighting the War on Terror is concerned. “If Afghanistan becomes a chaotic situation, it affects Pakistan and that means we’ll need more of everything . My message to my Democratic colleagues is we made mistakes in Iraq, let’s not “Rumsfeld” Afghanistan, let’s not do this thing on the cheap. Let’s have enough combat power and engagement across the board to make sure we’re successful. Quite frankly, we’ve got a lot of ground to make up.” [Read more...]