Hoyer Blasts Republicans on Afghan War: 'Where Were They' for Seven Years?

Steny Hoyer, the usually affable House Majority Leader, grew visibly upset Tuesday at the mention of GOP leaders criticizing President Obama on Afghanistan, saying Republicans under George W. Bush neglected the war for seven years.

"My Republican colleagues abandoned their focus on Afghanistan for seven years, seven years, and let it drift, and did not resource it properly, and did not succeed," Hoyer said, his voice rising. "We have more people than Mr. Boehner and his party put in Afghanistan over the last five or six years. So this business of wringing your hands and saying, 'You're not doing this'...We're doing much more than they did."

Hoyer's comments during a meeting with reporters came after a week of intense Republican criticism that President Obama's process of re-examining the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan before deciding on troop levels is putting American troops in greater danger. On Monday, House Minority Leader John Boehner said that Gen. Stanley McChrystal had made his recommendation for more troops and the president should follow it. "It's time for the Obama Administration to give our commander on the ground the resources he needs to better protect our troops and achieve the goals the president outlined in March," Boehner said.

Hoyer charged that Republicans had not only gone into Iraq under false pretenses, but had failed to properly conduct that war once American troops were committed. "We were under-resourced in Iraq for at least five-and-a-half years," he said. "Where were (the Republicans)? They were in charge. Where were they? They under-resourced very badly in Iraq." Hoyer voted for the use of military force in Iraq in 2002, but against the 2008 surge of troops there.

With tensions building on Capitol Hill over whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan, Hoyer said the president is right to reassess the strategy before moving forward. "He correctly believes it's a critically important decision to make correctly," Hoyer said. "He wants to have the right policy in place and my belief is when he decides the right policy to be successful, he'll resource it properly."