Hagan joins Biden at Fort Bragg

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan will be with Vice President Joe Biden today in Fayetteville to welcome home the 18th Airborne Corps home from Iraq.

Hagan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is standing with the Obama administration’s foreign policy in other ways as well, Rob Christensen reports.

"I think the fact that we are drawing down troops in Iraq is good," Hagan said in an interview this week. She also has a personal interest with a nephew who is serving with the Army in Iraq.

She also supports the Obama efforts to put more troops into Afghanistan, particularly efforts to go after Al Qaeda in the rough mountain ranges bordering Pakistan. But she also worries about the long-term committment of military action in the region.

"It's good that Obama has been listening the generals on the ground in putting together a plan to go forward," Hagan said. "I'm obviously concerned about the long-term significance of it.

"But I certainly do support him in this effort," she said.

She would also like to see the NATO nations increase their in the region, so the U.S. does not have to do it alone.

McCain camp pans Obama speech

John McCain didn't like Barack Obama's speech on Iraq either.

The McCain camp called it "Senator Obama's Fantasy Plan For Making Us Safer."

Mark Salter, a senior advisor to McCain, issued a statement that Obama failed to discuss the "dangers involved" in ending the war. Salter said those include a strengthening of Al Qaeda and that Iran and other countries in the region will be emboldened by a U.S. withdrawal.

"A realistic plan to prevent them from occurring is what people with experience in statecraft call 'strategy,' something Senator Obama has not offered yet," Salter said.

Syndicate content