Cooper Agrees with Troop Levels, Wants More Police Training for Afghans

Many Democrats are criticizing President Bush’s decision to pull only 8-thousand troops from Iraq, but not Nashville Congressman Jim Cooper.

He says President Bush is right to slow-walk the withdrawal. The House Armed Services Committee member supported the so-called troop surge last year. Cooper doesn’t attribute the dramatic reduction in violence solely to the surge and says security gains are fragile.

Cooper has returned from a weekend trip to Afghanistan and says the President is also right to add 45-hundred boots on the ground there. Unlike Iraq, he says a simple surge of troop levels won’t work in Afghanistan because it’s so undeveloped. Cooper says that country specifically needs police training.

“In a village by village, valley by valley conflict, with an illiterate society, policing is even more important than it was in Iraq. And the police structure in Afghanistan is even more backward. It’s even more riddled with corruption.”

On Cooper’s trip, he was unable to meet with General Jeffrey Schloesser, who commands the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell. Schloesser leads a contingent of international forces working in eastern Afghanistan. He’s one of the generals on the ground recommending additional soldiers for operations there.