{"id":15561,"date":"2010-04-09T13:17:04","date_gmt":"2010-04-09T19:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=15561"},"modified":"2010-04-12T08:12:36","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T14:12:36","slug":"udall-visits-afghanistan-meets-with-president-karzai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/04\/udall-visits-afghanistan-meets-with-president-karzai\/","title":{"rendered":"Udall visits Afghanistan, meets with President Karzai"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

Following a visit to Afghanistan, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall<\/a>, D-N.M., says he remains skeptical about the United States\u2019 role there but is glad he was able to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai<\/a> and members of his administration.<\/p>\n

The visit by Udall and four other members of Congress comes as the relationship between Karzai and the Obama administration is being strained. Karzai has recently accused the West of election fraud<\/a> in Afghanistan. He\u2019s also reportedly threatened to join forces<\/a> with the Taliban.<\/p>\n

Karzai has already denied publicly<\/a> the reports that told members of parliament he would join the Taliban if the United States and others kept up the public pressure on him to end corruption and electoral fraud. He did so again in the meeting with Udall the other members of Congress, Udall said.<\/p>\n

The senator, speaking with New Mexico reporters from an undisclosed location, said Karzai claimed his comments to members of parliament were misconstrued.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just take him at his word,\u201d Udall said.<\/p>\n

As to what he and the other members of Congress told Karzai: \u201cWe were urging him to put good government in place and do everything he can to eliminate the corruption that is a part of their government, to appoint competent local leaders,\u201d Udall said.<\/p>\n

The other members of the congressional delegation are Sens. Tom Carper<\/a>, D-Del.; John Ensign<\/a>, R-Nev.; Scott Brown<\/a>, R-Mass.; and Rep. Rob Wittman<\/a>, R-Virginia. The delegation will return to the United States on Sunday. Udall said they would be visiting another country before then but didn\u2019t name it.<\/p>\n

The Afghanistan trip had not been announced publicly before today\u2019s call.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am still skeptical\u2019<\/h3>\n

Udall generally refused to speak about policy issues during the interview, though he said he still remains skeptical about the buildup of American troops the president announced in December. At the time, Udall said<\/a> the strategy in Afghanistan \u201cshould be an Afghan-led effort. And with the widespread government corruption we have seen – especially in the recent election – I do not believe we have a reliable partner in this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am still skeptical, and let\u2019s leave it at that,\u201d Udall said today after seeing what\u2019s happening on the ground in Afghanistan. He said he\u2019ll have more to say about that next week after he returns to the United States.<\/p>\n

But Udall indicated he still wants to see more from the Karzai government.<\/p>\n

Udall said the delegation told Karzai he \u201cshould be speaking with the American people very soon about the partnership we\u2019re in\u201d by giving an in-depth interview to an American journalist about \u201chow he intends to partner with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other meetings<\/h3>\n

In addition to meeting with Karzai, Udall described meeting with American military leaders and members of the Karzai administration. He said the congressional delegation toured several areas in Afghanistan, always under heavy guard.<\/p>\n

The meetings with Karzai\u2019s administration, Udall said, \u201cwere very effective in terms of them portraying to us what they\u2019re doing and us being able to ask the most detailed questions we wanted to about what was happening, what progress they\u2019re making, what challenges they\u2019re facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was important to meet with Karzai\u2019s ministers \u201cto assess them one on one. It\u2019s a much different assessment than anything that can be written about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Udall also met with American soldiers, including some from New Mexico, and American civilians working on agricultural and economic development issues. He described the morale of both groups of Americans as \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s nothing like being on the ground\u2019<\/h3>\n

Udall said such congressional trips are beneficial because \u201cthere\u2019s nothing like being on the ground.\u201d He said additional funding bills and other legislation related to the war in Afghanistan will come before Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really think this can help me do my job better in that respect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Udall said he will be happy to brief President Barack Obama<\/a> on the trip if asked. When he was a member of the U.S. House, Udall did that with former President George W. Bush<\/a> following an overseas trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a visit to Afghanistan, U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., says he remains skeptical about the United States\u2019 role there but is glad he was able to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and members of his administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[144,116],"class_list":["post-15561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}