Senate hopefuls speak out against expected Afghan troop increase

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Three of the four Democratic candidates running for US Senate said this morning that they would firmly oppose a troop increase in Afghanistan that President Obama is expected to outline during a prime-time address Tuesday night.

“It’s about to turn into somehow bringing democracy to Afghanistan, somehow protecting a corrupt regime,” US Representative Michael Capuano said during a forum at Suffolk University Law School. “And I don’t understand why that mission is good. It wasn’t good in Iraq, it won’t be good in Afghanistan, it won’t be good in any place in this world.

“Al Qaeda is no longer in Afghanistan,” Capuano added. “We stay there, we are fighting yesterday’s war. We should go where Al Qaeda is, chase them around the world, not where they were yesterday.”

Attorney General Martha Coakley and City Year co-founder Alan Khazei also said they were against Obama’s proposal to add more troops, and said there was little he could say Tuesday night to convince them.

Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca was the only candidate who left room to support Obama’s strategy, which is expected to include adding 30,000 troops.

“We all need to wait,” Pagliuca said. “The president, I really applaud him. Dick Cheney acted without facts; our president has tried to get the facts. … We’ll comment on the program after he lays it out. I want to get our troops home as quickly as possible but I want to get them home in a safe way.”

The forum was sponsored by the Boston Herald and moderated by the newspaper's editorial page editor, Rachelle Cohen. It was streamed live on the newspaper’s website, with most of the questions coming from a panel that included three Suffolk University students.

Each candidate also spoke of the importance of young voters, saying they should be included in health care coverage, have more funding support to pay for college, and not be forced to deal with a federal deficit in future years.

All four Democrats except Capuano said they support lowering the federal voting age from 18 to 17.

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.