The Hill News

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) drew a parallel between Afghanistan and Vietnam in a tweet on Wednesday morning:

Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations’ defense subcommittee, tweeted: "I asked Secy Gates and Adm Mullen today about ending the war in Afghanistan. I got the same answers in 1975 about Vietnam."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen testified Wednesday morning before the defense subcommittee on the proposed 2012 budget for the Defense Department.

The hearing marked Gates’s last scheduled testimony to Congress before his retirement June 30.

Leahy, along with a bipartisan group of 26 other senators, sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday urging a shift in strategy on Afghanistan.

The letter stated that the United States’ original goals in Afghanistan have been largely achieved and requested that the president follow through on his pledge for an accelerated transition to Afghan security forces beginning next month.