The President’s nominee to take the reins as the next commander in Afghanistan said Thursday that the security situation there has deteriorated and promised to have a detailed assessment of the number of troops he would like to see stay in the nation after evaluating the battlefield over 90 days on the job.
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General Nicholson will replace Army Gen. John Campbell as top commander in Afghanistan.
Lieutenant General John Nicholson told a Senate hearing on Thursday that he will review President Barack Obama’s withdrawal plan, which has already been slowed to address Afghanistan’s struggle to blunt a still-resilient Taliban insurgency, Reuters reported.
“Under Gen. Campbell’s leadership, our forces have engaged in two important and enduring missions: our train, advise and assist support to the Afghan security forces, and our counter-terrorism effort”, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement. Instead, he said they would shrink to 5,500 by the end of the year.
Nicholson will do a great job in building on the work done by Gen. Campbell and help improve and strengthen the allied forces of USA and Afghanistan to fight its war against terror in the region.
Cook said Wednesday that there is no plan in place to alter that force reduction scheduled to occur gradually during the next 11 months.
The Taliban now control significant parts of Afghanistan, and American Special Operations forces and Afghan troops have been battling the group’s fighters in the southern part of the country. He also served as deputy commanding general for operations in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012. Nicholson said he was alarmed by the rise of the Islamic State in Nangarhar province and of al Qaeda’s growing presence in Kandahar, describing them as “clear attempts by transnational terrorist organizations to establish sanctuary inside Afghanistan”.
“We’re going to continue to assess the security situation in Afghanistan, and (Carter) is going to continue to listen very carefully to Gen. Campbell on his assessment of what’s happening in Afghanistan, but, as of now, there’s no change to that plan”, Cook said.
“The view of many of us is that the security situation in Afghanistan has been deteriorating rather than improving”, McCain said. The South Carolina Republican asked Nicholson on whether the USA would lift its restrictions against direct combat in Afghanistan if, for example, the Taliban marched on its traditional heartland of Kandahar.
Nicholson, a 1982 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a career infantry officer, is now commander of NATO’s Allied Land Command, headquartered at Izmir, Turkey.
The Obama administration’s goal in Afghanistan was “to destroy the core al-Qaida cell that had planned and supported the worst terrorist attack on American soil back in 2001”.
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Nicholson’s nomination, and a promotion to four-star rank, needs Senate approval. “He understands the importance and complexity of our mission in Afghanistan”, the Defence Secretary said.
