A senior Democratic lawmaker says Congress should vote on President Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2016.
Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern (D) isn’t holding his breath that troops will meet the deadline.
{mosads}”I’ve been around too long to just take somebody’s statement as gospel,” he said in an interview with The Hill.
McGovern, a self-proclaimed “dove,” believes the president is “in a situation where he’s trying to have it a little bit of both ways here and really nobody’s happy.”
In 2010 Vice President Biden told NBC News that “come hell or high water” U.S. troops would be completely withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Now that the White House has shifted its plan, the Massachusetts lawmaker says Congress should hold an up-or-down vote on U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan beyond this year.