Posted on 02/22/2005 6:50:55 AM PST by areafiftyone
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A senior American lawmaker called Tuesday for permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan to safeguard American security interests in a region that includes Iran as well as nuclear-armed Pakistan and China.
Sen. John McCain, part of a five-strong U.S. Senate delegation which held talks with President Hamid Karzai, said he was committed to a "strategic partnership that we believe must endure for many, many years.
"Not only for the good of the Afghan people, but also for the good of the American people because of the long-term security interests that we have in the region," McCain told reporters at the presidential palace in the Afghan capital.
Asked what such a partnership would entail, he said: "Economic assistance, technical assistance, military partnership including - and this is a personal view - joint military permanent bases and also cultural exchanges."
McCain, the No. 2 Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, didn't elaborate, and Karzai didn't address the issue at a joint news conference.
Afghanistan's neighbors include Pakistan to the east, Iran to the west and China to the northeast.
Officials from the Afghan government and the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan told The Associated Press earlier this month they are examining a military partnership which could include permanent American bases here.
However, Afghan Defense Minister Rahim Wardak has also requested high-tech weaponry such as attack helicopters and special forces for the new U.S.-trained Afghan National Army to reduce the need for foreign troops.
There are currently about 17,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, hunting remnants of al-Qaida and the former ruling Taliban.
The Afghan army, which currently numbers about 20,000 and is taking part in counterinsurgency operations in troubled areas near the Pakistani frontier, is to reach its full strength of 70,000 by the end of 2006.
Other members of the U.S. delegation, which arrived in Kabul after stops in Baghdad and Islamabad, also backed long-term U.S.-Afghan ties but gave no specifics.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat, said she hoped to expand a "friendship and partnership which is very important to the United States and something that we believe very strongly is in the interests of both" countries.
Karzai limited himself to expressing thanks.
"It is because of help from the United States that Afghanistan has what it has today: Be it in reconstruction, be it in economy, in elections, in the very fact that this is a country that is now owning itself."
The other senators were Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin. All but Feingold are members of the Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Defense Department budget.
Yeah, talk about a softball pitch for a little publicity!
Newsflash senators: permanent bases were already a given.
I bet you dollars to donuts that all three are running in 2008. Lindsey Graham has been chomping at the bit to run for president and will keep his cushy job as Senator - so will Hillary and McCain.
And we have McCain giving credence to the notion that we want to have a permanent occupying force in the Middle East. The loose cannon on the rolling deck. McCain truly does wear thin very quickly.
I think McCain better stick to his other calling 'speech god'.
McCain also proposed that when our tanks run out of gas, we should put more gas in them. Thank you Captain Obvious.
How many people did Mc'Cain knock down getting to the microphone and camera's?
What in the world is Hillary doing on the Armed Forces committee? She has no use for people in uniform and proved it when she was taking up space in the white house.
LOL!
Right!
At least, we know McCain supports, in this case, what is right. We can have permanent bases in both the recently freed countries, and not be an occupying power. It is ridicules for one to think that because the USA funds and uses a base in a county amount to occupation.
We've had such bases in a number of countries and not "occupied" these countries. Usually, the base country benefits economically and are more secure when we have such bases. With time, when the region is pacified, we move on.
The U.S.A. needs bases in these fledging democracies - and they need us - aircraft carriers in the region is not enough.
It would be nice to have a base in Afghanistan to raid the surrounding countries that have dictatorship or terrorist supporting government, but will the people of Afghanistan accept this?
Can McCain spell ME oil?????
As soon as she became Senator that was the first committee she looked to get on. This woman is not stupid. If she is on the armed services committee it looks good for her run for President (at least in the idiot Dems's eyes)
As soon as she became Senator that was the first committee she looked to get on. This woman is not stupid. If she is on the armed services committee it looks good for her run for President (at least in the idiot Dems's eyes)
Sorry about the triple post everyone!
My bet is a McCain and Clinton ticket in 2008 although it's hard to say who will lead the ticket. The way they fawned over each other in Iraq leaves little doubt in my mind IMHO.
You are exactly right.
Nah then McCain will have to move to the Democrat Party and then he will lose alot of the moderate Republicans who like him that way. Hillary will never move to the Republican party. She is being advised right now by her Husband to move to the middle. He tried a little to get Kerry to do that but without success but he really didn't care about Kerry. Now his wife is another story. She's his ticket back to the Lincoln Bedroom again!
U.S. Senator John McCain (C) speaks as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites) (L) and Afghan President Hamid Karzai (R) look on during a short visit by a U.S. congressional delegation in Kabul, Afghanistan (news - web sites) February 22, 2005. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators pledged long-term support for Afghanistan on Tuesday and influential Republican McCain said he saw the need for permanent joint military bases in the country.
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