Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will visit Afghanistan and Iraq, accompanied by two potential running mates, according to a source familiar with details of the trip.
The overseas trip will give Obama an opportunity to talk at length with Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.). The two men have been mentioned as potential running mates because they would bolster the Democratic ticket’s foreign policy and military credentials.
{mosads}Though Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, is a Republican, he has not endorsed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president. Hagel is now a leading critic of the Iraq war after voting for it in 2002.
Obama aides have spoken glowingly of Hagel, and the retiring senator has said he would consider the Democratic vice-presidential nomination if it was offered.
Reed, who voted against the war, is a West Point graduate and former Army paratrooper. He is less well-known than Hagel, but is considered a respected voice on defense matters.
Reed is also an expert on housing issues, which have grown in importance as the economy has soured, and he played a key role in the passage of the Senate foreclosure rescue bill.
Obama has long called Afghanistan “the right battlefield,” asserting that President Bush left the war there unfinished in order to invade Iraq. Putting it on his itinerary allows the Democratic contender to highlight that point.
Because of security concerns, The Hill is not reporting more details about Obama’s planned trip.
Obama has recently been accused of changing his stance on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq after saying that he might “refine” his plan upon consulting with commanders on the ground. He also confronts the difficult task of melding his criticism of the handling of the war with the improving conditions he is likely to be shown by U.S. officials during the trip.
But more U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan than Iraq in recent months, and the Taliban is resurging. This week, a massive truck bomb tore into the Indian Embassy in Kabul, killing at least 41 people in the worst attack in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
Obama last visited Iraq in 2006. He announced his intention to visit the countries weeks ago, after being criticized by McCain and the Republican Party. The GOP contends that Obama has criticized the conduct of the war without a ground-level view of what Bush’s “surge” in troop levels has accomplished.
The Republican National Committee put a clock on its website highlighting how long it has been since Obama visited Iraq, down to the second. On Friday, the clock said it has been 915 days.
A spokesman for Obama would neither confirm nor deny that the senator is traveling to the area.
Hagel’s office declined to comment and Reed did not immediately return calls seeking comment.