A Conversation on Iraq and Afghanistan with Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)

On October 26, Brookings’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy hosted U.S. Senator Jack Reed, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, for a conversation about his trip to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. First elected to the Senate in 1996, Reed is a former paratrooper and Army Captain who has made nine wartime trips to Iraq and five visits to Afghanistan.

Senator Reed discussed his meetings with U.S. troops, military commanders, Afghan and Iraqi officials; the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan; sectarian violence in Iraq; current reconstruction efforts in both countries; and the options for redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq in a safe and timely manner. The session was moderated by Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.