US Sen. Marco Rubio Visits Afghanistan
MIAMI (CBS4) -- Florida's junior U.S. Senator Marco Rubio will return to Florida Tuesday after he spent the weekend in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
According to a news release from Marco Rubio's office, the Florida Senator traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan where he met with U.S. troops, military officials and political leaders including General David Petraeus, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir of Pakistan, and Pakistani General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
They discussed political, economic and security issues affecting bilateral relations.
Sen. Rubio said Monday that success in American efforts to stabilize the region shouldn't be measured in troop withdrawals. He praised efforts to establish structured government in many areas and said progress is being made in training Afghan security and police forces, though he said there is still a long way to go.
"What we heard repeatedly, that it is important that the United States is committed to seeing it through, otherwise the Taliban and al-Qaida are just waiting for us to leave and come in," he said.
In Afghanistan, Rubio visited the Kabul Military Training Center which is the largest training base in the country for Afghan National Army soldiers. While there, Rubio and other Republican senators on the trip watched a demonstration by the Afghan National Army which included a training exercise in which the Afghan troops staged an ambush.
The other senators on the trip were Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. Like Rubio, Toomey, Johnson and Ayotte were elected to the Senate in November.
NATO sent 30,000 additional troops, mostly American, to Afghanistan last year to focus on fighting back the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Rubio said the effort is clearly working, with Taliban's momentum being thrown into reverse.
The U.S. now plans to begin withdrawing troops this summer, but there is concern that recent progress could be lost.
There is hesitancy among people to participate in government operations because they don't want to be punished if the United States leaves and the Taliban returns, Rubio said.
"They want to know that we're committed and we have to show that we're committed," Rubio said.
NATO has set a goal of having Afghan forces assuming full responsibility for security by 2014.
"There is a long way to go, there's no way to estimate how serious the challenge is, but we are headed in the right direction," Rubio said.
Senator Rubio returns to Florida on Tuesday.
