Elizabeth Warren, back from first trip to Afghanistan, says, 'I'm not there on a troop increase'
By Ed O'Keefe July 6 at 5:02 PM
Back from her first overseas trip to visit U.S. military personnel, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned that the Trump administration is creating a “diplomatic vacuum” in Afghanistan by leaving key State Department posts unfilled at a time when a “whole-of-government strategy” is needed to end the 16-year-old conflict.
The Trump administration has been working for several months on a new plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan, but internal debates among the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department have delayed this even as militants continue to mount attacks in both countries. U.S. military leaders have asked to deploy 3,000 to 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a request that probably will be fulfilled by President Trump.
Warren traveled this week to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, making her overseas debut as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Back in her Cambridge, Mass., living room on Thursday just 16 hours after returning home, Warren made clear: “I’m not there on a troop increase.”
“No one on the ground believes there is a military-only solution in Afghanistan. No one,” she said. “From the heads of state to the young man who walked us from one building to another in the embassy compound. No one — people at the forward operating base to anyone we stopped.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/07/06/elizabeth-warren-back-from-first-trip-to-afghanistan-says-im-not-there-on-a-troop-increase