LEWISTON — Members of Maine’s congressional delegation were cautious in their reaction to the speech by President Barack Obama on Tuesday night at West Point, where he outlined his plan for deploying 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in 2010.

All four members said they had more questions for Obama administration officials about the plan that they hope will be answered in the coming weeks.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Republicans, said any increase in American troops should be accompanied by increases in Afghan forces.

“The Afghan National Security Forces must be strengthened and expanded so they can effectively take control of the security of their own nation,” Snowe said in a statement.

Snowe, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she looked forward to hearing testimony from White House officials to “ensure that the strategy we are employing is in fact the most effective and responsible one at our disposal.”

Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she has traveled to Afghanistan four times, most recently last August, and found the situation worsening.

“I found American troops carrying the bulk of the military burden, valiantly and courageously, but often with too few Afghans by their side,” she said in a statement. “I continue to have questions about the impact of deploying more American combat troops in Afghanistan.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, a Democrat representing Maine’s 2nd District, said he “unequivocally” supports Obama’s goals of defeating al Qaeda and reducing the threat of global terrorism, but he questioned the effectiveness of committing more troops.

“Now that the president has laid out his plan, there are several critical questions that remain to be answered, such as the extent of our allies’ support, the details of how we will pay for this new plan and the effectiveness of efforts to battle corruption in Afghanistan,” he said in a statement.

Only U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine’s 1st District, said she would not support the president’s plan if forced to vote on it.

“I’m glad he has a plan, but right now I would have to vote against the troop increase,” she said in an interview. “I find it very hard in this difficult economy going back to Maine where people are losing jobs and saying we’re going to invest all this money in schools and roads and buildings in Afghanistan when we don’t have the money to do what we want to do in this country.”

Pingree said she was not convinced adding more troops in Afghanistan would make the United States or the other troops on the ground any safer.

“I actually think that as we’ve increased the number of troops, that it’s gotten less safe for our troops in Afghanistan,” she said. “In the last two years, we’ve had double the casualties; we have been trying to train the police force, the Afghan troops and turn it over to them and it hasn’t been working very well, so I’m not convinced that another 30,000 changes the dynamic dramatically.”

Pingree said she was pleased that the president said he would begin a troop draw-down in 18 months.

Collins and Pingree, who also serves on the House Armed Services Committee, will have the chance to directly question top Obama officials who are scheduled to testify before their committees this week and next.

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