September 21, 2009 MSNBC HARDBALL
MATTHEWS: We begin with the American war in Afghanistan and today‘s leaked report from our commanding general there, General McChrystal, who says we need more troops or we lose. Senator Bernie Sanders is an independent from Vermont who organizes with the Democratic Party in the Senate, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson is a Texas Republican. Thank you both, Senators, for coming on.
The first is the question, what do you make, Senator Sanders, of the statement by General McChrystal, the commander in the field there, that basically, we have two choices, go in big with a larger complement of troops, enough to protect the people there, or we leave and lose? We have no more...
(CROSSTALK)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Yes. I‘m not overly impressed by that statement. This is my fear. My fear is that we can get sucked into a quagmire like we did in Vietnam, like we did in Iraq. We have already lost over 700 troops. We‘ve spent $200 billion.
And you know what? We have not, as a Congress, been clear about what our goal is in Afghanistan. Originally, it was to capture Osama bin Laden. We did not do that. And now it presumably is to rebuild one of the poorest countries on earth, which is rampant with corruption. So Chris, what I think we need to do is we need to really—a national debate about what our goals are, what our exit strategy is, and I don‘t think the alternatives are simply pull out tomorrow or put in tens of thousands of more troops.
Continue reading »
