Two Bronx lawmakers have made it clear that they do not support President Obama’s escalation of the war effort in Afghanistan.

In press releases, both Congressman Eliot Engel, who represents the 17th District, and Congressman José Serrano, who represents the 16th District, expressed their favorable views of the President, but said they disagreed with his current strategy for Afghanistan, which includes sending 30,000 more troops into the embattled country. 

“I am with the President on many issues, but on Afghanistan, we don’t see eye-to-eye,” said Serrano. “Besides my concerns about strategy, I believe that it is a cost that our nation can ill afford, both in lives and dollars.”

Serrano’s denunciation of the President’s course of action is centered on his distrust of the country’s current government and the U.S.’s lack of success against Al Qaeda.

“I understand that a resurgent Taliban could provide a safe haven to Al Qaeda, but during the past eight years, we have not eliminated the terrorists but merely pushed them across the border and to other regions,” he said. “We need to focus on eliminating the terrorists as a firm goal for our counter-terrorism strategies — not solely on pacifying one unstable nation.”

In a question and answer session during a recent House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Engel also critically dissected new policies and condemned what he believes will turn into an “open-ended” war. 

“I saw the President’s speech last night (Dec. 1) and am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” Engel said, “but my fear, as is the fear of so many others, is that we could easily get bogged down in an endless war. What happens if this doesn’t work?” Engel questioned in front of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Gates replied, “The President gives the orders, but every man and woman that is deployed overseas is deployed over my signature. And if I came to conclude that we were bogged down and we were stalemated and we were sending young men and women into a maw, with no purpose and no hope for success, I wouldn’t sign any more of those orders.”

Engel has called for a “clear mission and goal outlined by the administration to go along with any troop deployments.”