Congressman McGovern a force to be reckoned with.

Byline: Kenneth Moynihan

COLUMN: KENNETH MOYNIHAN

Congressman James McGovern of Worcester is apparently going to be a point man in the debate now simmering over U.S. policy in Afghanistan. "The mission has greatly expanded and the policy is vague," Mr. McGovern said last week. "The more stuff I'm exposed to the more uneasy I get about what we're doing here. I get this sinking feeling that we're getting sucked into something that we'll never be able to get out of."

Also last week, a top Pakistani official was estimating that his forces had killed more than 1,000 "suspected insurgents" in their drive to defeat the Taliban fighters who have fled Afghanistan and taken up housekeeping in the northwest of Pakistan. By the tens of thousands, civilians are trying to reach refugee camps. The Associated Press said U.S. commanders were rushing thousands of troops to the south of Afghanistan to fight the Taliban there. We will soon be recording the 5000th death among the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last Thursday, Mr. McGovern announced on the floor of the House of Representatives that he would vote against $97 billion in supplemental funding for the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He introduced a resolution requiring that the Secretary of Defense provide by the end of the year an exit strategy for military forces in Afghanistan. Mr. McGovern's name was first on a list of 73 members of the House co-sponsoring the resolution.

Mr. McGovern said a "full and thorough debate" about American strategy has to take place, and that his resolution was "in preparation for that debate."

He said when he first ran for Congress he promised his constituents he would never "send our servicemen and women into a war without a clearly defined mission."

He added, "And I'm sticking to that promise. I'm sick and tired of wars that have no exits, deadlines or an end. We owe our troops and their families much better. And I'm deeply concerned about how long we will be able to sustain and pay for an expanded military presence in Afghanistan.

"Mr. Speaker, I simply want to know, what is the exit strategy that brings our servicemen and women home? Until someone gives me a credible answer, I will be voting `no.'"

This declaration, when considered by itself, may not show anything more than a congressman who knows his own mind raising a challenge to a president from his own party. But there were 73 names on the resolution, and it was only two weeks ago that Mr. McGovern was arrested in Washington and jailed for an act of civil disobedience. With a few other members of Congress, Mr. McGovern was trying to call attention to the administration's slow pace in dealing with the suffering of the people of the Darfur region of Sudan.

Those two declarations of independence suggest that the congressman is not on the Obama Express as it works its way across the country and around the world. In a business that rewards loyalty, Mr. McGovern is not letting the president from his party have a blank congressional check of approval, especially in the establishment of foreign policy.

Are there echoes here from the election of 2008?

Mr. McGovern was one of Hillary Clinton's most tireless campaigners around the nation. When asked, he regularly said he believed she would end the war in Iraq. When that extended campaign finally ended, Mr. McGovern, when asked, steadily repeated his opinion that Barack Obama should select Sen. Clinton as his running mate.

Mr. McGovern is a close friend of the Clintons, and she is now secretary of state in the Obama administration. This, of course, places her in the line of fire when Mr. McGovern criticizes administration foreign policy. It's a pretty sure bet that each of them has had to deal with the other in the last few weeks. There has been no outward sign of any hard feelings as Mrs. Clinton's friend challenged her boss and, indirectly, her.

Can we use Bill Clinton as a barometer? He's scheduled to visit Mr. McGovern in Worcester on June 12, and the two of them are planning to drop into the DCU Center to see who has paid $125 for the chance to meet the former president, or perhaps the congressman. It would be a long stretch to interpret Mr. Clinton's favor to Mr. McGovern as a sign that the secretary of state is either pleased or not pleased by the congressman's criticism of the administration.

There is no need to portray Jim McGovern as a national star - yet. He is, however, in the lead on Capitol Hill when calling for immediate action to help Darfur and a rational policy for Afghanistan. He continues to be a man to watch.

Kenneth J. Moynihan's column appears regularly in the Telegram & Gazette.