Senator Joni Ernst. (file photo)
Senator Joni Ernst is praising President Trump for using his prime time address on Monday to call on India and Pakistan to do more in Afghanistan.
“Great intent shown by our president,” Ernst says of the president’s plan.
According to Ernst, 20 different terrorist networks have found refuge in Afghanistan and now is not the time to abandon the fight there. Ernst, a veteran of the Iraq war, said President Obama made a mistake by setting a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq — and Ernst said Trump made the right decision to refrain from signalling an end date for the Afghan war.
“Now it’s up to congress and our military leaders to decide actually what should be happening on the ground,” Ernst said,” and we don’t want to project that out to the American public or any of our adversaries.”
Ernst said Afghanistan is “vulnerable” to the influence of Iran and Russia and she said maintaining U.S. military operations in Afghanistan at “status quo” levels would have been unacceptable.
(Reporting by Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)