Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has issued a 66-page report asking for extra combat forces in the region. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports, the Pentagon is “rebuffing congressional calls” for McChrystal to “personally make the case for the war, amid the growing political tumult over the Obama administration’s handling of the conflict.”

Despite the Pentagon’s hesitation, numerous lawmakers are calling for McChrystal to come to the Hill to testify, just as Gen. David Petraeus, the former top U.S. commander in Baghdad, was made available for days of high-profile hearings on the conduct of the Iraq war in 2007.

Sen. Kit Bond (R., Mo.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, tells NRO that inviting General McChrystal to testify is the right decision. “General Petraeus came before Congress and laid out our strategy,” says Bond. “He cleared the fog. General McChrystal can do the same.”

“McChrystal is a very wise and good leader,” says Bond. “He wants America to have ‘smart power’ in the region, and to do that, he will need additional resources. Time is of the essence. We need to make a strong commitment on the ground so that we won’t be dragging along in our efforts, trying to fire missiles from afar.”

“You don’t have a strategy without having the resources,” says Bond. “President Obama gave directions to General McChrystal, and has said that Afghanistan is ‘not a war of choice.’ Now, the administration is moving forward, but not telling us what our forces need to succeed. The only way to do that is to let McChrystal testify, so that we know what we need to complete our mission.”

“The president is having some buyer’s remorse,” says Bond. “He’s basically saying that decisions cannot be made by commanders on the ground, but that they can be subject to changing political winds. This change came all of a sudden, and I’ve been very disappointed. What the president said on the Sunday shows this weekend was an unpleasant surprise. We need more American forces to help train the Afghan army. A full counter-insurgency requires additional resources to keep the drug lords, Taliban, and al-Qaeda from coming into Afghanistan.”

The region around Afghanistan, Bond adds, is an area America cannot afford to ignore. “We need a regional approach. Afghanistan is very difficult; Pakistan is very difficult. There needs to be better coordination, and the troops are waiting for us to help them do their job.” Next week, Bond’s new book, The Next Front, co-authored with Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Lewis Simons, will be published. It documents numerous Islamic societies in Southeast Asia and how American understanding of them will be a critical part of American foreign policy in coming years.

Not everyone agrees with the Missourian. A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll says that 59 percent of Americans are now “less confident” that the war in Afghanistan will come to a successful conclusion, with just over half of those polled saying that they oppose adding more U.S. troops in the country. More than a third of those polled favor an immediate withdrawal.

Bond acknowledges the rolling tides of public opinion but tells us that the best strategy — not poll numbers — is what’s important now in Afghanistan.“Let McChrystal testify,” he says.