WASHINGTON — Fresh from an eight-day, six-country tour that included hot spots throughout the Middle East, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Monday that it was imperative that American leaders avoid repeating in Afghanistan many of the mistakes that were made when the U.S. military left Iraq.
Specifically, the Colorado Republican applauded as “wise” the recent White House decision to of troops and advisers from Afghanistan, and he urged a continued U.S. presence.
“What I don’t want to see happening is a collapse of Afghanistan like we saw with Iraq,” said Gardner, pointing to the violent rise of the Islamic State. “We have to make sure we can get the Afghanis to a point to where they can defend themselves.”
Asked how long he thought U.S. military personnel should remain in Afghanistan — which he estimated at 10,000 in strength — the freshman senator demurred.
“That’s something that our president and commanders and leaders on the ground will work through,” he said.
His position on Afghanistan troop levels — forceful in some ways but deferential or amorphous in others — is representative of how Gardner, new to both the Senate and its foreign relations committee, is approaching his growing role as policymaker in U.S. global affairs.
The trip, to Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom, was designed to connect the rookie senator with world leaders and also help him bone up on global affairs while traveling with other U.S. officials, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“It was an intense seven to eight days,” said Gardner, who added that he took copious, handwritten notes on his international journey.
At every stop, he said, loomed the issue of Iran and its tentative deal with the U.S. and international negotiators. “It came up everywhere,” he said. “In every single meeting that we had.”
Israeli officials have been particularly vocal in their opposition, and Gardner said that in a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister warned of the dangers of giving away too much at the bargaining table.
Gardner also has been critical of the deal, laying out why he thinks it’s a mistake for the U.S. to lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran scaling back its nuclear ambitions.
“We are in the driver’s seat for a good deal, not just any deal,” he said.
More broadly, he said it was “eye-opening” to see how ongoing strife and violence in the Middle East had created a vast sea of refugees; he described one camp in Jordan as the “third-largest city” in the country.
“For me, this trip represented a very sobering analysis of what the United States faces in an incredibly challenging part of the world,” he said.
Though Iran dominated conversation, Gardner said he also found time on the trip for other issues — including those that relate directly to Colorado.
He said he ate often with Colorado troops serving abroad and also discussed with Israeli leaders a push to lower tariffs that affect beef exports from his home state.
Mark K. Matthews: 202-662-8907, mmatthews @denverpost.com or twitter.com/mkmatthews
