The United States needs to be sure Afghanistan doesn't become a "breeding ground for things that can come back and hurt us," Sen. Tim Kaine said Monday, in anticipation of the president's upcoming speech on Afghanistan and South Asia.
"I think the answer does have to be we can't control the internal politics of Afghanistan," the Virginia Democrat and 2016 vice presidential candidate told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "They have corruption issues and other things. If we think we can solve it with a magic wand, we're wrong."
President Donald Trump will speak to the country on Monday at 9 p.m. EDT from Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia, after meeting on Friday at Camp David to reach an agreement on a strategy moving forward.
The president tweeted this weekend that he's made a decision, and Defense Secretary James Mattis also said the president has decided what to do moving forward, but would not discuss specifics.
Kaine said he thinks the ultimate answer will be that the United States should remain invested in Afghanistan.
"I mean, to kind of put it bluntly, so what happens in Afghanistan stays in Afghanistan," the senator said. "There's no spillover effect into a nuclear-armed nation that could harm us."
Kaine said he does think the United States has "missed an opportunity" where Afghanistan is concerned.
"We can look back and say, wow, after the death of [Osama] bin Laden, there was not an 'OK, OK, let's just stop and really look at what is the continuing mission in Afghanistan,'" said Kaine. "That was such a powerful success of the Obama administration, but then there was a failure after by everybody to say now what's the continuing rationale for being here?"
Further, said Kaine, Sen. John McCain already has drafted an Afghanistan strategy that he was going to introduce on the floor of the Senate in September, because "we were frustrated at not hearing from the administration."
Kaine said he does think Trump's national security team "is solid," even though he's a critic of Trump's.
"I expect to hear [the plan] in significant detail tonight, and then we'll kick the tires about it in September," the senator said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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