Senator Bernie Sanders applauded the Obama administration for exploring alternatives to a major troop buildup in Afghanistan. “My great fear is that we will get bogged down into a never-ending quagmire there with more and more loss of life and billions more spent,” Sanders said. “We need to be a lot clearer as to what our goals in Afghanistan are, and what our exit strategy will be. I am glad that President Obama is rethinking our options there and looking at alternatives to a major increase in troops. Obviously, we have to be vigilant in the fight against terrorism, but we’ve got to do it in a smart way.”

The White House, according to published reports, is weighing whether to shift the focus in Afghanistan by scaling back American forces, beefing up Afghanistan’s own security operation, and sharpening the effort to root out al Qaeda. 

The possible White House shift surfaced two days after a 66-page leaked document was divulged in which Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who leads U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, warned that the American-led effort “will likely result in failure” without a significant buildup in the number of combat troops

The dire warning and the call for a troop surge boomeranged. The reaction in Congress was mounting skepticism about the situation in Afghanistan.

“We need a national debate about what our goals are,” Sanders said of the eight-year-old war that already has lasted twice as long as the American involvement in World War II. “I don't think the alternatives are simply to pull out tomorrow, or to put in tens of thousands of more troops.”

Sanders also expressed concern that the Afghan government, already mired in corruption, just conducted a fraud-riddled election.

American forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001. Last month was the deadliest for U.S. forces there since the Taliban-led government was ousted. American forces, which make up the largest contingent of the NATO force in Afghanistan, have suffered the largest share of deaths. More than 800 American troops have died since the war began.