Four weeks from today, Democrats in New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District will cast their primary ballots and choose between me and Katrina Swett - and on the critical issues of Iraq and Afghanistan, the difference between the two of us is crystal clear.
Katrina Swett was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq and now she wants to escalate the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. I opposed the war in Iraq and I oppose the escalation in Afghanistan.
The decision to invade Iraq, and the decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan are two of the biggest and most important policy questions our government has faced in the last decade, and Katrina Swett and I stand on opposite sides of both.
While I opposed the war in Iraq, Katrina Swett supported it. She called George W. Bush’s approach “sophisticated and smart” and was one of New Hampshire’s most outspoken champions for the war in Iraq.
Today, in part because of that rush to war in Iraq, we are mired in Afghanistan. I oppose getting dragged in deeper, but my opponent wants to escalate the number of American soldiers.
The simple truth is that these wars have cost us thousands of American lives and over $1 trillion in American tax dollars, and we cannot afford to keep making the same mistakes over and over.
By invading Iraq in 2003, our country diverted our focus and resources away from Afghanistan, and we are paying the price today.
By escalating the US presence in Afghanistan today, we are diverting our focus and resources away from the real terrorist threat, most of which has moved to places like Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan.
Instead, I support a narrow mission of counter-terrorism, with a goal of attacking and disrupting Al Qaeda, instead of a wide-open mission of counter-insurgency and nation-building. The truth is that escalating our troop presence and widening our mission will make it harder – and will make it take much longer – to even begin a withdrawal of our troops.
There is nothing temporary about our widening mission. Our country has been fighting in Afghanistan longer than we fought in Vietnam, or in World War II. We are getting dragged in deeper every day.
Here is the bottom-line for me: The war in Afghanistan is costing our country too many lives and too much money, and it is not making us safer. I believe we simply cannot afford to make the same mistakes in Afghanistan that Katrina Swett and too many others made in supporting the war in Iraq.
Today, I was proud to speak this message alongside New Hampshire veterans in Concord, including two young veterans of the war in Iraq who spoke eloquently about their service and their friends who serve in Afghanistan today. I honor their service and the sacrifices that they and their families have made. I believe the best way we can honor that service is by giving them clear, achievable missions and by supporting them with full veteran’s benefits when they return home. That’s what I will do in the U.S. Congress.