Though his cries for an accelerated troop withdrawal from Afghanistan have lately been among the loudest on Capitol Hill, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Monday he wasn’t always against U.S. involvement in the country.
After presenting an internal briefing sent to senators last week by the White House in which the president states that “on the threat side we haven't seen a terror threat emanating out of Afghanistan for the past seven or eight years” -- a claim that conflicts with what President Obama has said publicly -- Manchin observed, “We seem to be staying well beyond our mission of counterterrorism. By all reports, we have been successful. We’ve done what we went to do.”