Chris Coons: ‘I’m Not Sure’ How Trump Adding 5K Troops to Afghanistan Will Make a Difference

EXCERPT:

COONS: "Well, the core challenge here is understanding what the strategy is. President Trump has pushed down to the commander level combatant commander level decisions about things like troop levels and deployment. The major strike that was carried out a few weeks ago where we used the largest non-nuclear piece of ordinance in American history was apparently not directly approved by the president but by a combatant commander. This decision about levels is also going to be made by combatant commanders. But it is the president’s responsibility as commander-in-chief to make strategic decisions and to articulate to the Senate his strategy for Afghanistan that would justify re-engaging and raising our troop levels, as it means to stabilize Afghanistan, I think he can make an argument for the strategy. My personal concern is that under President Obama we had as many as 100,000 American troops and we were not able to defeat the Taliban with that kind of troop presence. I’m not sure how 5,000 would make a telling difference."