Mattis looks to reconcile Taliban to Afghan government in bid for peace
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis believes victory in Afghanistan is still possible, though not necessarily on the battlefield but in reconciling the Taliban with the country’s government.
Mr Mattis was speaking shortly before arriving in Kabul, amid high security concerns, where he will meet President Ashraf Ghani and top US commanders.
He said “we do look towards a victory in Afghanistan”. However, he added it would not be a military victory. The Taliban has achieved a stalemate in recent years and shown little interest in conceding to the Kabul government.
Mr Mattis, a retired marine general who commanded US troops in southern Afghanistan in 2001, said getting the Taliban to reconcile en masse may be “a bridge too far”. So the emphasis is on drawing in Taliban elements piecemeal.
He described this approach as an effort to start peeling off those who are tired of fighting after more than 16 years of war.
“We know there is interest on the Taliban side,” he said.
He defined victory in Afghanistan as a political settlement between the Taliban and the government, and an Afghan military that is capable of securing the country largely on its own.
At that point, he said, Afghanistan would not be “a haven for attacks internationally” as it was when al Qaida used the country as a launching pad for the attacks on the US on September 11 2001.
US intelligence officials are predicting the war will remain as a stalemate in the traditionally most intensive fighting season of the spring.
The visit is Mr Mattis’s second since President Donald Trump announced last August that, despite his instinct to pull US troops out of Afghanistan, his administration would take a more aggressive approach to the conflict.
As part of an effort to bolster Afghan fighting strength, the US in recent weeks sent an army group of about 800 soldiers, accompanied by several hundred support troops, to advise the Afghans closer to the front lines.
The US also shifted A-10 attack planes from striking IS militants in Syria and Iraq to Afghanistan as part of Mr Trump’s new approach. These and other moves boosted the number of US troops in Afghanistan by at least 3,500 to a total of more than 14,000.