Earlier this week, President Obama announced that he will be sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. While many on the right praised him for deciding on a troop surge in the central Asian country, others attacked him for suggesting that American troops will begin drawing down from the country within 18 months. The Orlando Sentinel reports that one GOP congressman, Rep. John Mica (R-FL), had a particularly absurd attack on the the idea of a timetable, claiming that setting a withdrawal timeline would be a mistake because militants in Afghanistan patiently “wait centuries to get even”:
“I’m taken aback by his deadline,” said U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park. “These guys wait centuries to get even. Eighteen months is nothing for them.”
Mica apparently feels comfortable signaling to the Afghans that we may be in their country for centuries. But as Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) — who first proposed a timetable for withdrawal back in August — has said, “Showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it is time to leave is one of the best things we can do.”