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Ken Buck on War & Peace |
BUCK: Well, I don't think we set artificial deadlines. I think that we set realistic goals, and, and try to accomplish those goals. I don't think we should be nation-building, I don't think we should be staying there over the long-term
Q: What if General Petraeus says, "You know what, it's July 2011, but if we're going to achieve our goals, we can't pull any troops out. May need more troops, may need to surge up again here." Well, you could support that because you don't believe in deadlines?
BUCK: No, I didn't say I could support that. I don't believe in deadlines, I don't believe in telling the enemy when we're going to withdraw. I need to know what he thinks the goals are. And if I agree with those goals, then evaluate at that point.
Buck challenged Bennet, saying he'd voted against imposing sanctions on companies doing business with Iran, a claim Bennet denied, but Buck insisted was accurate.
Bennet's view was even briefer, saying U.S. goals in Afghanistan should be to destroy al-Qaida groups on the Pakistan border and then to support the Pakistan military to make certain that country's nuclear weapons are secure from terrorists. Then U.S. troops should be brought home.
A: I think it is the right strategy for a short period of time. I think overall we have to get out of the nation-building business. In my view, we have three goals in Afghanistan. The first is to make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists. The second thing to do is to make sure that we are disrupting, dismantling the drug trade as much as possible. And the third thing we need to do is promote regional stability in Central Asia. The idea that we are going to create a Western-style democracy in Afghanistan is pure folly. We're not going to get that done in 10 years, in 50 years. And we're going to lose thousands of lives and we're going spend billions of dollars.
Faith2Action.org is "the nation's largest network of pro-family groups." They provide election resources for each state, including Voter Guides and Congressional Scorecards excerpted here. The Faith2Action survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Set a timetable for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan '