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Washington • Tea party Republicans and liberal Democrats in the Senate are urging a swift reduction in U.S. forces in Afghanistan starting this July, when President Barack Obama plans to announce the beginning of a drawdown.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and his second cousin, Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., are the lead signers of a letter to the president which argues that the United States has largely met its goals in Afghanistan and it's now time to greatly reduce its forces there.
"The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits. It is time for the United States to shift course in Afghanistan," said the letter, signed by 27 senators and sent Wednesday.
Lee and fellow tea party caucus member Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., were the only two Republicans on a list dominated by some of the most liberal senators, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Al Franken, D-Minn.
The senators believe that the U.S. should continue counterterrorism measures, train the Afghan military and maintain diplomatic missions.
"However, these objectives do not require the presence of over 100,000 American troops engaged in intensive combat operations," the letter states.
Obama has long planned to start reducing the number of service members in Afghanistan next month. He announced the drawdown at the same time he called for a surge of troops in 2009, but the White House hasn't given any indication of the size of the withdrawal.
Lee argued for a drawdown during his Senate campaign last year, taking issue with a policy to build up the Afghanistan's roads and utilities and forge a more stable local government as a way to reduce insurgent attacks. And his opinion hasn't changed since he took office in January.
"We shouldn't be over there in perpetuity with as large a presence as we have now," he said Wednesday.
The position of Lee and the other senators who signed the letter is similar to that recently expressed by presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr., who said it's time to wind down the nation's longest war.
In an interview with Esquire, Huntsman said: "Whether we like it or not, whenever we withdraw from Afghanistan, whether it's now or years from now, we'll have an incendiary situation. ... Should we stay and play traffic cop? I don't think that serves our strategic interests."