More than a year since the Obama administration officially ended American combat operations in Afghanistan, the White House’s newly minted battle plan for the country effectively restarts the combat mission for the 9,800 USA service members still in the country.
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The U.S.is now free to conduct airstrikes against the Taliban when needed in critical operations, and American troops can accompany and advise Afghan conventional forces on the ground, much as they have with Afghan commandos. Former US envoys to Afghanistan have also asked President Obama to keep the strength in Afghanistan at 10,000, an advice also reiterated by many of Gen. Nicholson’s predecessors.
The move is a subtle change from prior directives that only allowed US airstrikes against the Taliban in a limited set of situations. The White House has not yet received his recommendations.
Far from ending the two wars he inherited from the Bush administration, Obama is wrestling with an expanded set of conflicts as his presidency nears an end, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and Syria, with no end in sight. That campaign promise led to accusations that he was making war decisions based on domestic politics without regard to the situations on the ground.
The diplomat said there have been no changes yet to the decision to reduce forces, and it will be possible to continue working with the Afghans in Kabul and all four of the regions with the lower US troop levels.
The latest move, however, “reflects [that Mr. Obama] is being thoughtful” about what is needed in Afghanistan to ensure the country does not devolve into a failed state, he said. The U.S. has spent billions in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan over the past ten years, and the renewed Taliban uprising is threatening to destroy the progress made. The moves cement NATO’s commitment to the training and advising mission in Afghanistan as the conflict drags on and follow on Obama’s announcement of expanded US military authority to support the Afghan forces in the air and on the ground.
Carter said the changes Obama approved amount to “using the forces we have in a better way, as we go through this fighting season”, adding, “It’s a good use of the combat power we have there”. That is at the core of Obama’s decision, disclosed Thursday, to authorize USA commanders to increase air support and to allow US soldiers to accompany and advise Afghan conventional forces on the ground in the same way they have been assisting Afghan commando forces.
USA airstrikes, as well as American and Afghan combat missions, would be limited to areas of Afghanistan where local forces need the most help, Capt. Davis said.
The 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan are scheduled to drop to 5,500 by the end of this year, but the pace of that decline has yet to be decided.
Obama’s authorization of the new measures is a reflection of the deteriorating security across Afghanistan, where local forces are struggling to contain a resurgent Taliban, as well as al-Qaida and Islamic State fighters, who pose formidable threats after the departure of most foreign forces.
Earnest stressed that the new authorities do not mean that USA forces will be operating in a combat role.
After two fighting seasons on their own, Afghan forces have ceded almost 80 of Afghanistan’s 400-plus districts to Taliban control. USA officials have insisted they are encouraged by the Afghan forces’ resilience, despite their high rate of battlefield casualties.
“That’s why as (U.S. Defense Secretary) Ash Carter told us, the troop numbers are being looked at again”. Simultaneously, Gen. Mick Nicholson is finishing up his initial assessment of the situation, which includes recommendations to the commander-in-chief on what is needed to support the continuation of USA involvement in the war. He had ended the USA combat role in Iraq, but since then has gradually expanded a renewed US involvement there against the Islamic State group. The incident happened in Ghor, Afghanistan, to 21-year-old labourer Fazl Ahmad.
In Brussels, allies also examined ways to contribute more to the US -led campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
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The diplomat said it appears that at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Warsaw in July, the allies will shelve earlier plans to consolidate forces in and around Kabul next year.
