Mr. Obama already made a decision this week on one aspect of the plan by lifting some restrictions on the engagement of US troops with Taliban fighters.
Advertisement
The new policy would allow USA forces to accompany Afghans at key moments in their offensive campaign against the Taliban.
In seven months, the United States will supposedly disengage because the Afghan forces will have trained well enough to take over security.
American forces will have an expanded mandate to target groups including the Taliban in Afghanistan, aiding their Afghan counterparts not only in training and advising but also accompanying them on the ground and in the air, an administration official said. Since then, US forces have been relegated to a bifurcated mission.
The U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, but have continued to provide support and assistance as the Afghan forces struggle to grow and gain greater capabilities, including in their air operations.
The first U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan 15 years ago, after the Taliban government refused to turn over 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The new rules give US forces a greater ability to accompany conventional Afghan forces that are fighting the Taliban, according to the reports.
Last month, the United States killed Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a drone airstrike.
“The renewed airstrikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan will have the same effect as the thousands and thousands of previous airstrikes we have conducted against the Afghan insurgency”, said Matthew Hoh, a former USA diplomat in Afghanistan who resigned from his post in 2009 to protest the war.
Still, experts warn that it’s hard to predict when Afghanistan will be able to face the Taliban on its own, not to mention the country’s enormous economic difficulties and fractious political system.
The secretary of defense says this is about being proactive, adding, “It’s using forces we have in a better way, as we go through this fighting season, rather than simply reacting”.
Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland said last week that Nicholson was sending his assessment of the ongoing security threat there and the needs of the Afghan military to U.S. Central Command and to the Pentagon, and was expected to brief senior military leaders soon afterward. It’s for the same reason that some Afghans may prefer the foreign occupiers to the insurgents responsible for the majority of civilian deaths: the foe who hurt you last encourages friendship with whoever’s promsing to harm them next.
Earlier this year, Obama authorized airstrikes against the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in southeastern Afghanistan.
“This means, in some cases, offering close air support”, he said.
“The president made a decision to enable the commander there to have some additional authority to act pro-actively – that is to anticipate the situation in which the Afghan security forces would benefit from our support”, Carter said in response to questions at the Defense One Tech Summit in Washington, D.C.
Advertisement
It’s not clear what impact the relatively small USA force in Afghanistan, even with new operational authorities, can have on the country’s vast and complex battlefield. “Afghanistan is a place where we should wish to consolidate and lock down our provisional progress into something of a more lasting asset”.
