Tim Pawlenty Doubles Down on Afghanistan

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By Aaron Blake

Even as newly leaked documents show an increasingly grim picture of the war in Afghanistan, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) on Monday made the case for a more open-ended and potentially larger commitment in the near decade-long war.

Comparing the situation to pre-surge Iraq, the potential 2012 presidential contender said at a breakfast with reporters that President Obama's intention to begin withdrawing troops starting next year amounts to an arbitrary timeline.

Pawlenty, who just returned from a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan, said he hopes the current surge, which isn't yet complete, is enough. But he also said he wouldn't be opposed, out of hand, to more troops. "I don't presuppose that we need more than that, but we might," Pawlenty said at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Pawlenty said Afghan leaders need to do a better job of communicating just what they need from the American presence in the country. But he said the mission requires some "strategic patience."

"I would say that we are committed to be there until those objectives are met," Pawlenty said, noting that important groups in the area are "hedging their bets" in case the mission doesn't succeed.

Pawlenty's rhetoric on Afghanistan is in keeping with the approach to the country other potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates like former Govs. Mitt Romney (Mass.) and Sarah Palin (Alaska) have advocated and continues the Minnesota governor's broad-scale assertion of conservative principles on a variety of issues foreign and domestic.

On Monday, for example, Pawlenty offered a number of red-meat Republican talking points:

* On bailouts, he said big banks should have been allowed to fail and that the bailed-out auto companies should have gone into bankruptcy.

* On President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package, Pawlenty said it was too big and "largely ineffective."

* On Arizona's stringent new immigration law, he said the law has been "wildly mischaracterized" by its opponents and that it provides necessary safeguards against racial profiling.

* On Social Security, he called the current setup "astonishingly stupid" before checking himself and subbing the word "unwise" for "stupid."

Nearly all of Pawlenty's actions suggest he will at least dip his toe in the water in about six months' time. (He has said he will make a decision on the race by early next year.)

Pawlenty insisted Monday that he's not basing his decision on what those other candidates do. Indeed, he admitted that he might not have that luxury, given that someone like Palin can afford to wait and make her decision at a later date because of her national profile. Pawlenty is barely known nationally -- even among Republican activists.

Pawlenty also must demonstrate that he, as a two-term governor from a relatively small state, has the foreign policy know-how and vision to go toe-to-toe with President Obama come fall 2012.

Pawlenty's appearance today as well as his recent trips to the region are rightly regarded as an attempt to bolster his credibility on matters of foreign policy and national security in a field that, at least as currently comprised, is decidedly thin in both regards.

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