Lugar On Afghan War: Americans Are Wondering 'Where Does This Stop?'Amanda Terkel
aterkel@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting
First Posted: 01/18/11 12:42 PM Updated: 01/18/11 12:42 PM
WASHINGTON --
The war in Afghanistan is reaching a "critical juncture," according to Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and American taxpayers are going to have to decide they want to continue spending billions of dollars for many years to come.
"For ordinary Americans looking at all this, they wonder, where does this stop?" said Lugar told reporters at an event sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor on Tuesday. "Here, American taxpayers have been generous. Billions of dollars are going to Afghanistan to try to improve the standard of living of people, apart from the military side. But we're running into real problems with regard to Afghan law and administration, and even humanitarian matters."Lugar has argued before that the administration needs to more clearly outline what would qualify as success in Afghanistan, but he resisted taking a position Tuesday on what that means for the U.S. withdrawal from the country.
"Well, this is constantly being rephrased by the president, as to how much withdrawal or whether we think about it then," Lugar told The Huffington Post. "This is a debate we're going to have the next five months or so. No definition right now."
Lugar also broke down the changing U.S. politics on the war, saying that the country was moving toward a "critical juncture" with an increasing proportion of Americans looking for it to end. More and more Democratic lawmakers are calling for withdrawal, Lugar said, and even some Republicans are eyeing defense issues as a prime target for spending cuts. The Indiana senator said it remains to be seen whether there's a "preeminence of the budget questions as opposed to the war question."