Senate GOP leader says if Obama seeks more troops as advised, Republicans would support him

Senate GOP leader says he would back troop request

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says that if President Obama asks for more troops in Afghanistan to fulfill a request by commanders there, he expects Republicans to support the action.

McConnell says the strategy in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan is about protecting the United States. The Kentucky Republican says he doesn’t want to see the region return to its past as a haven for terrorists.

A Democratic senator on the Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, says the U.S. can’t take a simplistic approach and just send more troops without a thorough review of the strategy for the war.

McConnell and Reed appeared Sunday on CBs’ “Face the Nation.”