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Leahy Confident In Latest Surge

Burlington, Vermont - July 4, 2009 

Senator Patrick Leahy is optimistic that Vermont's Guard and U.S. forces can succeed in Afghanistan, unlike Soviet forces that were driven from the country twenty years ago. Leahy made his comments last week as 1,500 Vermont guard soldiers learned they will be deployed to Afghanistan next year. The stepped up U.S. effort in Afghanistan comes 20 years after an allied force of Afghan tribes and klans soundly defeated an occupying army of Soviet forces with secret U.S. assistance. Leahy says he is confident the U.S. forces will NOT suffer the same fate.

"The Russians were sent running as they should have been. We helped send them running. But they were there to conquer the country. We've made it very clear, and everybody I talk with in Afghanistan feels the same way: they know we're there to help and we're going to leave. We've made it very clear we are going to leave. And it's going to be turned back to them. The ones that made the mistakes in the past are those that tried to conquer them" said Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy.

The Democrat emphasized that since the September 11^th attacks he has consistently supported US military forces remaining in Afghanistan to neutralize Taliban and Al-Quaeda terrorist influence.