Liz Warren joins the usual suspects.
Via TPM:
A bipartisan delegation of five senators visiting U.S. troops in Afghanistan for the Independence Day holiday issued a stark warning about the Trump administration’s lack of strategy for a military conflict that has dragged on for more than a decade.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) noted with concern that Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has yet to visit the country, and the administration has not yet nominated an ambassador in Kabul.
“It’s more than just dropping bombs that will win in Afghanistan,” Graham said. “Secretary Tillerson needs to come to Afghanistan quickly.”
Six months into the Trump administration, Hundreds of State Department posts — including many that concern diplomatic strategy for the Middle East and Asia — likewise remain vacant. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said the military told him during the delegation that they have become alarmed by this “hollowing out of the State Department.”
The senators’ visit came just a few weeks after the Trump administration approved a large increase in the number of U.S. soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan, adding several thousand more to the roughly 9,000 currently stationed. But lawmakers from both parties slammed the lack of a “comprehensive” strategy that goes beyond military action.
“Nobody on the ground here believes there is a military-only solution,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), the only other Democrat on the delegation.