Sen. Carl Levin isn't calling for a withdrawal out of Afghanistan, but he is the head of the Armed Services Committee, and what he's saying is that the Afghani people should protect themselves and that there should be a surge in Afghan forces.

Levin, D-Mich., urged the Obama administration to expand Afghan forces to 240,000 troops and Afghan police to 160,000 officers by 2013.

Key Congressional Democratic leaders told the administration this week that they want to see detailed plans for the war before agreeing to bolster U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A request for more troops could come within weeks from the top American commander.

Levin first warned of his reservations about more U.S. troops last week after a visit to the region.

Here's what Levin said in a presser.

Levin: The best way to achieve that goal in my judgment is that we increase and accelerate dramatically our efforts to support the Afghan security forces in their efforts to become self sufficient in delivering security to their own nation before we consider whether to send more US combat forces above the levels already planned for the next few months.

Andrea Mitchell questions Levin on his opinion and he states that since the Afghanistan people already hate the Taliban this should be an easier task and he knows that our "footprint" in the region is only used as a recruiting tool for terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.

It gets old hearing that we have to train their troops, because that's what Bush said his entire presidency. And the training in Iraq never lived up to what Bush and Cheney wanted us to believe, but this isn't that administration and Levin's proposal is better than us sending another 20,000 US troops over there.