Pence makes surprise visit to Afghanistan to meet U.S. troops
WASHINGTON — U.S. Vice President Mike Pence paid an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, a nation where the Trump administration has stepped up involvement in what’s become America’s longest war.
Pence told the troops that “victory is closer than ever before,” adding that U.S. armed forces will remain in Afghanistan until the threat to the homeland is eliminated. Before the rally at Bagram Airfield, the vice president met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the country’s chief executive Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul.
The vice president, whose role carries with it the ability to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate, held his departure from Washington until final passage by Congress of a Republican tax bill that represents the Trump administration’s biggest legislative accomplishment. His vote wasn’t needed, but Pence played a prominent role in praising Trump’s legislative victory at a White House ceremony on Wednesday.
Pence, whose son is a Marine, had planned to be in Egypt and Israel this week but postponed that visit until midJanuary after delays to the tax vote. His decision to go forward with the Afghanistan visit allows him to address U.S. service members before the Christmas holiday as well as to meet with Afghan leaders. Pence stays in regular communication with Ghani.
Speaking to reporters, Pence said that Ghani plans to have parliamentary elections next year and a presidential vote in 2019.
As President Donald Trump wraps up its first year in office, about 14,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Afghanistan as well as 5,200 in Iraq and 2,000 in Syria.
Trump announced his administration’s Afghanistan strategy in August, signing off on a plan letting the Pentagon boost troop levels there by thousands, even as he acknowledged that “my original instinct was to pull out.”
Pence’s war-zone visit follows Trump’s release this week of his administration’s National Security Strategy, and it comes as Trump is seeking to promote his support for the military and take credit for progress in the fight against Islamic State. Trump has yet to visit a war-zone himself; former President Barack Obama visited troops in Iraq in April of his first year in office.
Trump is working to bolster an end-of-year message about his accomplishments in office amid signs that special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, with its reach into the White House, won’t end anytime soon.