U.S. in Afghanistan for decades?

While the Obama administration is trying to make an exit within 19 months from Iraq, its policies in Afghanistan could keep U.S. troops there for decades, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said Friday after a visit to both nations.

"I understand the need to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban wherever they are. … But we're pursuing a policy of nation-building (in Afghanistan) that I still have serious questions and reservations about," Chaffetz said in a telephone interview on Friday from Dubai after leaving Afghanistan.

"I think it's decades of work and financial commitment, not something that can be turned around in 36 months," he added.

Chaffetz said Afghanistan is a country where 70 percent of the people are illiterate; it has a weak central government; tribes controlling much of the country have battled for years; most areas have no dependable electricity; it has few marketable products; and the U.S. is trying to eradicate its opium poppies, which has been a major industry.

"But what can you replace it (the opium trade) with? Well, pomegranates end up being part of the answer. The problem is it takes five years for a pomegranate tree to grow to the point it will generate a pomegranate," Chaffetz said.

"So you've got our good men and women out there trying to deal with these highly illiterate people that have no natural markets for the talents that they offer," he said, and the United States may be making commitments that will require troops there for decades.

Chaffetz said briefings by commanders in Afghanistan led him to believe that the United States faces a problem with two components there: chasing enemies, and improving conditions in the country so its people will not turn to terrorist groups for help.

"First, there's the military component of rooting out the bad guys, and I'm convinced we're doing everything we can and should," he said. "It's where the terrorists are, and we've got to go after them. They say they're going to kill us. We better get after them first."

He is less supportive of how the administration is addressing nation-building there. "In order to make sure that al-Qaida and the Taliban do not have a safe haven in Afghanistan, that is not an equation we have yet solved. Right now the solution is 50,000-plus U.S. troops. I think that's not sustainable."

Chaffetz added, "I am not fully sold on our U.S. policy in Afghanistan. … I don't know that we should be in the business of nation-building. That's the direction we're headed."