Powell Salutes Obama, Worries About Wars
Gen. Colin Powell won't say who will get his vote this November, but on Thursday's "Good Morning America," the former secretary of state put in a good word for all three front-runners, praised Obama's Rev. Wright speech and worried that the U.S. armed forces are becoming "very, very stretched" by the protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gen. Colin Powell won’t say who will get his vote this November, but on Thursday’s “Good Morning America,” the former secretary of state put in a good word for all three front-runners, praised Obama’s Rev. Wright speech and worried that the U.S. armed forces are becoming “very, very stretched” by the protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the administration of President George H.W. Bush and the first Gulf War, expressed concern over the burden an extended stay in Iraq would put on the troops and the country’s military forces.
“It’s going to be far more than the 100,000 that Secretary [of Defense Robert] Gates was hoping for. It’s going to be like 130,000 or 140,000. That is an extremely difficult burden for the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, to keep up,” Powell told “Good Morning America.”
Powell also expressed reservations about the two-front combat in which the United States finds itself: surging in Iraq while trying to maintain control in Afghanistan.
“We have responsibilities in Afghanistan. And in some ways, Afghanistan is more difficult than Iraq. You have the tribal problems. You had drug lords running around … and al Qaeda and the Taliban are making a resurgence,” Powell said.
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