Rep. Martin Heinrich Gives Me His Take on Obama's Afghanistan Plans

Rep. Martin Heinrich (NM-01) was gracious enough to call me today to discuss his views about last night's speech on Afghanistan by President Obama. We exchanged some back and forth about the President's strategy, and what comes next. 

Bottom line: Rep. Heinrich believes the President made a step in the right direction, given the terrible situation he inherited from the Bush administration. Although numerous questions still need to be answered, Rep. Heinrich at this point believes that following the President's basic strategy would be the best and quickest way to achieve an honorable and orderly withdrawal of troops.

Here's a recap of our conversation:

BW: I know that many people -- including me -- are very concerned about President Obama's plans for Afghanistan as outlined in last night's speech. What is your take on that?

Rep. Heinrich: We’ve been there eight years and, frankly, we should have had this sort of attention and strategy a long time ago. From what I can tell, I think this is probably the quickest path to a responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan. I don’t think we can just pick up stakes and leave right now in a way that respects the Afghan people, who have been through this with us more than once.

BW: I have two main concerns. One is the cost at a time when we are already in debt and our economy is still struggling. I also have serious doubts about whether we can succeed in this monumental task within 18 months, given the rampant corruption in Karzai's government, the primitive and dangerous conditions on the ground and other factors. The escalation is very upsetting to me and many others I know, and it's hard to trust that we're getting the truth. I can get the feeling that the President might not be speaking from the heart, but just spinning to downplay how long we'll be there in order to gain support.

Rep. Heinrich: I guess I don’t agree on that. But, at the same time, we’ve been there for eight years and I fully understand the level of frustration, and the fact that people are tired of having wars on two fronts and seeing our troops deployed multiple times. I totally get that. I’ve sat down with some of these folks and their families and talked through this, and I think what the President is doing is not an easy thing.

I still think there are a lot of questions to be answered, but I think the good news is that this is no longer an open-ended approach -- the way that the Bush administration treated it. We now actually have a plan, and it isn't this sort of counter-terrorism strategy over there. Frankly, that didn't work because it was all about going after individual bad guys. Too many of our folks were back behind walls. They were back in places where there was a measure of safety for our troops, but there was never the level of security for the Afghan society for them to be able to accept responsibility for building security of their own.

I think that’s where we need to get to, and we need to do it as quickly as possible. In addition to the counter-insurgency strategy with the military, we also have to have a development strategy and we have to have our international partners there. I don’t think we can have that sort of cowboy approach that we’ve seen in the past. I don’t think we are seeing that from President Obama.

So it’s not an ideal situation but i think he’s making the best of the situation that we’ve been dealt.

BW: What bothers me is that so many knowledgeable people are questioning how the strategy can possibly work. I watched a discussion on Charlie Rose last night where a variety of guests who aren't exactly antiwar, like Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass, were pretty much mocking the plan as undoable in the time frame the President is outlining. How will this work?

Rep. Heinrich: One of the things I’m looking forward to is that Defense Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen of the Joint Chiefs are both going to be here in the House tomorrow. I think one of the things that we need is a whole additional level of detail. What are the benchmarks? What are the specifics? How quickly ... how realistic is it to put another 30,000 troops in there? How long is it going to take? 

Instead of this sort of nebulous thing, we need to have some real benchmarks and specifics that say, when we get to this point, we have accomplished that goal. We need to define what success is so that we can have a withdrawal. It can’t be an open-ended approach. I mean I completely get that.

BW: There are significant worries about the money involved. Have you heard about any legislation being proposed to pay for the escalation?

Rep. Heinrich: I think one of the things we have to consider is that we should be putting America to work, and there is an opportunity lost for dollars spent anywhere overseas right now. At the same time, I think this is the quickest, most responsible way to get back to where those dollars could be being spent in the United States. 

I think Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin apparently has a proposal in terms of paying for this. I’m looking forward to seeing what that looks like. As a nation, I think we all need to have "skin in the game." I haven’t seen his particular proposal yet, so I can’t say whether it’s something I like or don’t like. But I believe we need to be thinking as a nation about how we pay for these things, and about taking responsibility.

It’s not something we can do for free or do forever.