Senators on Afghan trip tell Trump: Fill State Dept. slots
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — A delegation of U.S. senators visiting Afghanistan issued a stark warning Tuesday to President Donald Trump to fill vacant embassy and State Department positions here in order to better address the country’s mounting military and political crises.
Led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the U.S. delegation in Kabul voiced what has been a concern for months now in the absence of a permanent U.S. ambassador. The civilian diplomatic mission here has been led by a chargé d’affaires, Hugo Llorens, who was called in from imminent retirement to help as a stopgap during a time when the Afghan government has faced political storms.
“All of us realize that it’s more than just dropping bombs that will win in Afghanistan,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.
“Secretary Tillerson needs to come to Afghanistan quickly,” he said.
Graham described the lack of diplomatic focus as unnerving and called on the administration to appoint someone “to manage this portfolio” as well as fill many of the vacant positions in the State Department dealing with South and Central Asia.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said the military had expressed concern about “the hollowing out of the State Department.”
The issue is again highlighting the U.S. military’s outsize role in Afghanistan, with U.S. commanders even shouldering some of the diplomatic efforts around the country.
Trump is expected to announce a troop increase of several thousand in addition to the roughly 8,800 U.S. forces currently in Afghanistan in a dual mission of training and assisting Afghan forces and carrying out counterterrorism missions.
Pentagon officials have already hinted that the new strategy would not put a timeline on the increased military presence, essentially drawing the U.S. into another prolonged chapter of a war that has already dragged on for 16 years.
“The political patience at home will depend on the clear articulation of a strategy going forward,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said. “We need a strategy in the United States that defines our role in Afghanistan, defines our objective and explains how we are going to get from here to there.”
The U.S. diplomatic efforts in Afghanistan in recent years have been criticized for the turnover rate, what some officials have come to call “an annual lobotomy.”
Most of the midranking diplomats only come for oneyear terms, and by the time they understand the complexity of the place, they are already headed for their next assignment.
The concern has grown in recent months as many of the senior positions in the State Department dealing with regional policy remain vacant, and the position of special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan was recently scrapped.
The role of the U.S. ambassador to Kabul has particularly been crucial in the past two years, as the coalition government brokered by former Secretary of State John Kerry has required constant hand-holding and mediation.
The coalition partners, President Ashraf Ghani and the government’s chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, have struggled to see eye to eye on issues, throwing the government into long periods of stagnation amid a Taliban resurgence.