Published: December 01, 2009 06:27 pm      

Timetables for Afghanistan questioned

The government of Afghanistan needs to clean up its act, says U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.

Chambliss spoke to reporters on a conference call Tuesday morning about his Thanksgiving trip to Afghanistan.

“It’s one of the most corrupt governments in the world. It’s imperative if they are going to continue to receive support from the United States that they clean up the corrupt government (Afghan president Hamid) Karzai has in place,” Chambliss said.

Chambliss spoke ahead of Tuesday night’s planned address to the nation by President Barack Obama on Afghanistan.

“I hope the president will concentrate on tonight and talk in detail about the benchmarks he wants to impose on Karzai to make sure that cleanup happens,” Chambliss said.

But Chambliss said he doesn’t believe the president should set timetables or announce the United States will leave Afghanistan if certain military objectives aren’t met.

“There was a report in the press while we were in Afghanistan where a Taliban leader said that he understood the United States was going to be there until 2013 and then we were pulling out. He said if that was the case ‘We’ll just sit back and wait until 2013,’” Chambliss said.

According to the Associated Press, Obama was to announce he is sending 30,000 extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan on an accelerated timetable that will have the first Marines there as early as Christmas and all forces in place by summer. But he’ll also declare troops will start leaving in 19 months.

“If we are going to win this war, it appears that it is going to take more troops. We know it’s costly,” said Margaret Ball, chairman of the Georgia 9th Congressional District Democratic Party Committee. “But we do need to win the war. He’s taken enough time and sought enough advice to feel he’s doing the right thing.”

Terry Christie, a former member of the Dalton City Council and former political science professor at Dalton State College, said he is glad the president didn’t rush into a decision on Afghanistan.

“A lot of people said he took too much time. I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t believe you can take too much time when you are dealing with issues of this gravity,” he said.

But Christie said he doesn’t know if it’s wise for the United States to set a deadline for getting out of Afghanistan.

“I’m not sure about setting timetables. Then it just becomes a waiting game,” he said.

But he said he thought the talk about timetables is aimed at spurring action by the Karzai government to clean itself up.

“I don’t see how we can ask the American people to spend their resources over there when the people we are shoring up are busy stuffing money into their pockets,” Christie said. “The folks I’m talking to are more concerned about what (former Georgia governor and senator) Zell Miller used to call kitchen table issues than Afghanistan. But the one thing people do know about Afghanistan is that the government is corrupt.”

Whitfield County Board of Commissioners chairman Mike Babb said he wants to hear a plan to eventually turn over the fighting in Afghanistan to Afghan forces.

“The generals are telling him we are going to be there another 10 years. I’m not sure the American people are ready for us to be there another 10 years,” Babb said.

Several Dalton area residents said Tuesday they planned to watch the president’s speech.

“I want to see what his plan is,” said Dalton’s Patricia Ambrose. “I don’t just want to know what he plans to do, I want to know why he’s doing it and what he expects to happen.”