Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that militant safe havens in Pakistan are the biggest threat to progress in Afghanistan, warning that the U.S. is on a “collision course” with Pakistan unless it steps up action against militants.
“My message to the Pakistanis [is], you've got to choose who you're with,” said Graham, who just returned from a visit to Afghanistan, on the CBS program Face the Nation.
“The safe havens in Pakistan are the biggest threat to our progress in Afghanistan,” Graham said, adding that he may press President Obama for tougher action.
“We're on a collision course with Pakistan. If this doesn't change soon, I would urge the president to use more aggressive military force against safe havens in the Pakistan side of the border being used to kill our troops and undermine progress in Afghanistan,” Graham said.
He noted that “I'm tired of telling a South Carolina family, sorry about losing your son in Afghanistan to an IED made in Pakistan.”
Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he is seeing positive signs within Afghanistan itself.
“We've got a long way to go, but this has turned around in the last year pretty dramatically on the security front,” Graham said.
He said the country’s army and police are better today than at any other point he has seen.
Graham’s remarks come ahead of the beginning of the drawdown of U.S. forces there next month, although it remains unclear how many troops will initially leave. Obama plans to have U.S. forces out in 2014.
“The training programs work much better. We could stay on track to reduce our forces by 2014,” Graham said.
“If progress continues in Afghanistan, where there are no safe havens for the insurgents, virtually no safe havens, we could have a substantial number of our troops at home, with the Afghans in the lead, if we'll stay with the program we have today,” he said.
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