Levin: U.S. Should Follow Gordon Brown Model on Afghanistan

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, said Thursday that the United States should follow the model set this week by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown when it comes to Afghanistan.

In Levin's interpretation, that involves strong resolve but not necessarily more combat troops. At a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters, Levin read aloud from Brown's speech to Parliament in which Brown said that "no one should doubt" Britain's commitment to Afghanistan. "When those words come from the British, it has sort of that reassuring sound that Americans love to hear," Levin said.

He approvingly listed the evidence Brown offered of that commitment -- plans to enhance equipment, increase flying hours, quadruple the number of mine protectors, send in a new type of helicopter and increase spending by 20 million pounds.

Levin also said Brown wants the new Afghan government, when it is formed, to promise the international community it will grow its army, take tough action against corruption, have a more inclusive political process and strengthen Afghan control of local affairs. He said he'd add 500 more British troops to the 9,000 currently there if those conditions are met.

The chairman said he was disappointed that media coverage of Brown's speech focused on the troop increase. He was talking about a U.S. newspaper he declined to name. Here's one U.S. story along those lines, and that's the way it was covered in Britain, as well.

Brown's position tracks closely with Levin's preferences to step up training of the Afghan army and build it up by 5,000 to 6,000 troops a month; send in a "surge" of equipment for the Afghan army, some of it transferred from Iraq; and give security jobs in and out of government to low-level Taliban who are in it for the money, not the ideology.

Levin said the British approach also tracks with the priorities set by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal is in the middle of Obama administration deliberations about whether to add to the 62,000 U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan, and how many. He has asked for tens of thousands more. But Levin said a show of resolve is "what McChrystal wants more than anything else," and that can be accomplished without a surge in troops.