Levin opposes more combat troops in Afghanistan

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee repeated Friday his reccomendation that the United States not deploy additional combat troops to Afghanistan -- a position supported by many Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), but perhaps not the White House.

"Our primary goal should be to strengthen the Afghan army and police, to provide the necessary training and equipment," Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told MSNBC. "The Afghan army is motivated, the Afghan people hate the Taliban, so you have those two important building blocks to start with."

Levin's remarks put him at odds with the Obama administration, which has suggested recently the possibility of sending more combat troops to the war-torn state. Pelosi, among other congressional Democrats, oppose that idea, but lawmakers writ large are awaiting a reccomendation by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who is heading U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

McChrystal's report is also likely to reccomended additional combat forces, Levin acknowledged during the interview. But, the senator added, he believes a more appropriate strategy would divert some equipment returning to the United States from Iraq over to Afghanistan. Those reinforcements, combined with additional NATO support, would help U.S. and Afghani forces take charge of the security situation.

"The best chance of success in Afghanistan -- and we've got to enhance our chances of success, particularly remembering on this day what happened in Afghanistan... the best way to do that is to let [local forces] do what they want to do," Levin said. "We should help them do that before we consider sending additional forces... and increasing the size of our footprint."