The killing of 16 Afghans by a U.S. soldier near a base in southern
Afghanistan Sunday, combined with the recent outcry and violence over
the accidental burning of Qurans on an American military base has some
leading Republicans questioning whether the war is still worth the
effort.
In the past 24 hours, two Republican presidential candidates-former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick
Santorum-have suggested that in light of the incident, the United States
may need to change course and re-examine its role in Afghanistan.
"There's something profoundly wrong with the way we're approaching the
whole region, and I think it's going to get substantially worse, not
better," Gingrich said this weekend on "Fox News Sunday." "And I think
that we're risking the lives of young men and women in a mission that
may frankly not be doable."
"Any time you have such a shocking development, I think it's important
to take a look and see what the situation is and whether it's possible
to continue on," Santorum said. "Given all of these additional problems,
we have to either make the decision to make a full commitment, which
this president has not done, or we have to decide to get out and
probably get out sooner, given the president's decision to get out in
2014."
"I think you'll see this debate now open up in a pretty profound way in
the Republican Party because the fact of the matter is the mission is
not clear there," said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who helped
run John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008. "The reality is that
when you talk to people who've served there, they don't understand what
the mission is, what the focus is. And when we leave Afghanistan, which
we will eventually leave, it will be as if we have never been there."
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/alleged-afghanistan-massacre-republicans-questioning-war-effort-153152684.html
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