By Joseph D. Szydlowski

(AXcess News) Washington - First, House members expressed doubts about Afghanistan's future. Then, three expert witnesses left no doubt about their stance: more troops are needed.

J. Alexander Thier, director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee the added troops and civilian assistance could cost more than $60 billion per year for several years.

Thier joined Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation, and Frederick W. Kagan, director of the Critical Threats Program at the American Enterprise Institute, before the committee Thursday.

The hearing followed news reports that Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who commands U.S. forces in Afghanistan, is requesting 40,000 additional U.S. soldiers. President Barack Obama said he is considering McChrystal's proposal, though he hasn't determined how many more troops he will send to Afghanistan. He approved an increase of 13,000 soldiers in February. On Thursday, Obama also signed a $7.5 billion aid package for Pakistan to fight militants.

Legislators, including Rep. Gary L. Ackerman, D-N.Y, remained wary about committing more of the military's already-stretched resources to a volatile, fractured state with a police force "best known among Afghans for the crimes it commits" and a history of corrupt contractors.

"With apologies to Winston Churchill, I'd describe our position in Afghanistan as a mess in the middle of a muddle mired in a morass," Ackerman said.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said she supports a surge in Afghanistan, but worries that Obama's hesitance to agree to McChrystal's request is fomenting problems, such as the allegedly fraud-fraught Aug. 20 election.

The three experts backed McChrystal's surge strategy.

"Stabilization requires simultaneously addressing security, governance and the rule of law, and economic development," Thier said.

Coll said that the endeavor means several more years of U.S. forces fighting. The Afghan army can assist, he said, it is still too weak and untrained. Afghanistan's police forces, he added, are too riddled with corruption to help.

All three experts said that allowing the Taliban to regain control of the country would create another safe haven for al-Qaida, which is "genetically intermixed with" the Taliban.

Thier warned that increasing instability in Afghanistan would spread into Pakistan.

"We maintain the fiction of the border, but the militants do not," he said.

Coll and Thier said that the U.S. must focus on cleaning up the Afghan government. Coll  said the U.S. should force President Hamid Karzai to form a coalition with his opponent.

Military forces should also reach out to remote villages, Kagan said

"Use U.S. forces, military and civilian, to establish relations with local tribal leaders, understand their concerns, shield them when necessary from predatory government and in some circumstances shield them from Taliban," Kagan said.

Additional forces would also spread the burden, he said.

"Everyone in Afghanistan is working five jobs. It'd be nice if we could get them down to four," Kagan said.

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire