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Back from her first overseas trip to visit U.S. military personnel, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned that the Trump administration is creating a diplomatic vacuum in Afghanistan by leaving key State Department posts unfilled at a time when a whole-of-government strategy is needed to end the 16-year-old conflict.

The Trump administration has been working for several months on a new plan for Afghanistan and Pakistan, but internal debates among the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department have delayed this even as militants continue to mount attacks in both countries. U.S. military leaders have asked to deploy 3,000 to 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a requestthat probably will be fulfilled by President Trump.

[Death of U.S. soldier in Afghanistan highlights the evolving role of conventional combat troops there]

Warren traveled this week to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, making her overseas debutas a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Back in her Cambridge, Mass., living room on Thursday just 16 hours after returning home, Warrenmade clear: Im not there on a troop increase.

No one on the ground believes there is a military-only solution in Afghanistan. No one, she said. From the heads of state to the young man who walked us from one building to another in the embassy compound. No one people at the forward operating base to anyone we stopped.

The Trump administration needs to define what winning in Afghanistan is and how we get to that, the senator added. They owe it to the deployed forces to provide the American people with a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy that has not only a military angle, but also an economic and diplomatic plan.

[Whats your end game? Trump delegating Afghan war decisions to the Pentagon faces scrutiny]

Trump has yet to nominate a U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan, two countries destabilized for years by terrorist groups that freely move across a porous border. Senior State Department positions entrusted with overseeing U.S. policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan remain vacant, and the acting director of the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan and her deputy stepped down last month as the administration is poised to close the stand-alone office, launched by veteran diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke.

Warren said she is perplexed by the administrations decisions. Theyre not only talking about cutting up and down at the State Department, but also leaving major diplomatic posts unfilled. Thats dangerous, she said.

One of several Democratic senators talked about as a potential2020 presidential candidate, Warren haslong been a target of Trump, whohas been derided for nicknaming her Pocahontas a reference to her claim of being part Native American, which was questioned during her 2012 Senate campaign.

The overseas trip marked the most visible demonstration of Warrens work on defense matters an area she is less known for after years of focusingon the nations economic recovery and financial regulatory reform.

Warren said she committed to do my homework when she joined the Senate Armed Services Committee, hiring policy experts forher staff and seeking out extra reading and extra policy briefings from our government and outside experts.

But part of doing my homework is going and seeing it with my own eyes. Theres no amount of briefing that substitutes for standing on the ground and looking around. Nothing takes the place of talking to the people who are trying to execute on American foreign policy every single day, she said.

[On July 4 visit to Kabul, GOP senators say U.S. needs to win in Afghanistan]

Warrens views on the situation in Afghanistan echo those of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who led the delegation, and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), McCains longtime friend and a fellow defense hawk. Speaking with reporters on July 4 before departing the country, McCain predicted that the conflict in Afghanistan would continue on a low-burning simmer for a long time to come. But he reiterated that only an aggressive U.S. effort to bolster Afghan military actions would force the Taliban to negotiate. That wont happen unless they feel they are losing, he said.

Graham said he would tell Trump that he needs to pull all our troops out or build on the request for 3,000 to 4,000 more personnel.

Warren said she agreed with McCain and Graham that Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are creating a diplomatic vacuum in Afghanistan by not traveling to meet with top leaders and by leaving acting officials in charge of the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic and economic projects.

Look, the people who are there are doing their best, but they dont have the perceived authority they need to get the job done, she said.

The delegation also included Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

[What is the price of not fighting this war?: Mattis makes his pitch to get more NATO troops in Afghanistan]

In her conversations with U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Afghanistan, Warren said, she got no sense of how much longer it will take Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and top generalsto deliver their plans to Trump or whetherthey are developing a more regional approach to account for the situation in Pakistan as Tillerson has promised. In Pakistan, the senators were flown by helicopter to Wanna, in South Waziristan, to observe how the Pakistani army is clearing the border region of insurgents.

Warren called the Pakistani militarys work in that region a real success story.But she added that the Pakistanis realize theyve got a big border problem.

Theyve put a lot of effort into changing an area that was largely controlled by terrorists into an area that the government now controls, she said, noting that the project is working because they could fly in foreign visitors and theyre beginning to try to set up a local market, and civilians are beginning to come into the region.

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Elizabeth Warren, back from first trip to Afghanistan, says, 'I'm not there on a troop increase' - Washington Post