Eni Faleomavaega: “I remain skeptical that adding 30,000 U.S. troops and that focusing more on local and provincial levels of government…”

“I remain skeptical that adding 30,000 U.S. troops and that focusing more on local and provincial levels of government will bring lasting stability and success in Afghanistan. I do, of course, want our new strategy to succeed, and I know that our military and civilian personnel on the ground will give it a supreme effort. They represent the very best this country has to offer. Yet Afghanistan's history is replete with the failures of outside powers, or countries, in their attempting to take over or to remake the Afghan people--from Alexander the Great, to Genghis Khan, to the United Kingdom, to the Soviet Union, and now even to us.”