U.S. Sen. Tom Udall said Tuesday a recent trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan only reinforced his concerns about the wisdom of escalating the war.

Udall was part of a delegation of Congress members who traveled to the war-torn region to meet with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, including the presidents of both nations, as well as American military and diplomatic officials.

Talking to reporters in a conference call, Udall, a New Mexico Democrat, said he wants the U.S. and Afghanistan to succeed in their effort to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida, which he says will make America safer.

He also had praise for Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who met with the Congressional delegation. "We have a good general in charge. I think he knows what he's doing in terms of counterinsurgency," Udall said.

But referring to the government of Afghanistan, the senator said, "I'm concerned with the reliability of our partner in the region. It's a tremendous human, military and financial cost of an open-ended commitment. Therefore I remain skeptical of a continued build-up. I'm unconvinced that sending 30,000 more troops into harm's way improves the situation or advances our national security interests.

"The reality on the ground is that rebuilding Afghanistan is a monumental effort," Udall said. "We can't do it all. And the more we do, the more dependent they become."

Udall long has a reputation as a dove in Congress. While a member of the House in 2002, he voted against the original resolution for war in Iraq. When President Barack Obama announced in December that he would be sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, Udall said "I remain unconvinced that sending an additional 30,000 American troops into harm's way improves the situation or advances our national security interests in the region."

On Tuesday, he said he supports Obama's July 2011 deadline for beginning to withdraw from Afghanistan, saying McChrystal "felt very comfortable with that deadline."

Udall criticized the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"We had an election in Afghanistan which was considered to be widely corrupt," he said. "This is a president with very wide powers to appoint local officials. These appointments in some cases aren't even being made. ... if a good appointment isn't being made, or no appointment's being made at all, then how do you build a government?"

One aspect of his description of Karzai might apply to many U.S. politicians as well. "When it got into a difficult area, he would just talk in a general way to us, and try to reassure us that he was moving as quickly as he could. He tried to put as good a face on things as he could."

Udall stressed several times his belief that the U.S. should take a tip from the British military and require that our troops fight side by side with Afghan troops. "Thirty thousand (American) troops do not have Afghans to partner with, so we're sending them into harm's way to do all the work," Udall said. He described that as "an untenable circumstance for fighting men and women."

Said Udall, "Gen. McChrystal emphasized that (Afghan soldiers) are much more effective when they go into a local community because they speak the language, they understand what's going on, they are able to network with the locals. That is a much better situation to have going on than just having us do all the work. Whenever we have the locals working with us, we make fewer mistakes."

McChrystal, according to Udall, emphasized that he tells his troops every time a civilian is killed that creates five to 10 Taliban members.

Udall was critical about a plan in which the U.S. will be paying $8 billion to $10 billion a year for Afghan police salaries.

"Apparently the Afghan government has no resources to pay any salaries for these people," Udall said. "Where are we headed with this? How long are we going to be able to do this? Those are the things that worry me about the commitments we're making right now. Are we going to be able to be there for the long term? Do the American people want to be supporting another nation's police force and army indefinitely into the future?"

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com.