U.S. Starting from 'Scratch' in Afghanistan, Emanuel Says

Appearing on CNN's State of the Union, Emanuel never mentioned the Bush administration by name as he discussed the choices now facing President Obama, including a decision about whether to send as many as 40,000 more troops as has been requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in the country.

That request has put Obama politically on the spot, with Republicans calling on him to back his commander while opposition among Democrats has been rising.

But Emanuel said, "What I find interesting and just intriguing from this debate in Washington is there's a lot of people who, all of a sudden, just say this is now the epicenter of the war on terror, you must do this now, immediately approve what the general said, where before, it (Afghanistan) never even got on the radar screen for them. Everything was always about Iraq."

"When you go through all the analysis, its clear that basically we had a war for eight years that's been going on, that's adrift, that we're beginning at scratch and just from the starting point," Emanuel said. "There's not a security force, an army and the type of services that are important for the Afghans to become a true partner."

Emanuel said it would be "reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop level if in fact you haven't done a thorough analysis about whether in fact there's an Afghan partner ready to fill that space that the U.S. troops would create and become a true partner in governing the Afghan country."

Speaking of the review of Afghanistan policy and the decision on troops now going on at the White House, Emanuel said, "The president has been asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side. What is the impact on the region? What can the Afghan government do or not do?"

"Those questions never got asked," he added.

The White House has already held five meetings on Afghan policy since McChrystal's request and Emanuel said there would be another set of meetings over the next two weeks.

Also on CNN, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who is on a fact-finding mission in Afghanistan, said the U.S. should not commit more troops to the country until questions about the legitimacy of the recent presidential elections there are resolved.

"It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country, when we don't even have an election finished and know who the president is and what kind of government we're working in, with," Kerry said.

Uncertified results showed that President Hamid Karzai had won with 54 percent of the vote, thus avoiding a runoff, but an election commission has been looking into charges of widespread fraud at the polls.

"When our own ... commanding general tells us that a critical component of achieving our mission here is, in fact, good governance, and we're living with a government that we know has to change and provide it, how could the president responsibly say, oh, they asked for more, sure, here they are?," Kerry said.