GOP senator sees major progress in Afghanistan

“We offer support, we offer intelligence, but it’s thanks to the Oklahoma 45th that you can see light at the end of the tunnel, where they’ll be able to supply their own security,” Inhofe said in an interview published by the Tulsa, Okla., news station News on Six on Tuesday.

“Our kids still have to go out and patrol, so they are still in danger,” the senior senator from Oklahoma added in an interview on a Tulsa talk radio station, KJRRH. “They are finally to the point where the Afghan national army is capable of providing their own security. That’s a major change.” 

Inhofe traveled to the desolate region of Ghanzi, where more than 2,000 U.S. troops from the 45th and 279th combat brigades are currently stationed.

Inhofe said the progress he witnessed on the ground suggests that the the U.S. will be able to withdraw by the end of 2014, on the White House’s schedule, if not earlier. 

“They’re scheduled at the end of 2014 to be out of Afghanistan and I think that will happen,” Inhofe said. “That could well happen even before that.”