Trump will address path forward on Afghanistan
Pentagon requests 4,000 more troops
CAMP MOREHEAD, Afghanistan — Signaling that the U.S. military expects its mission to continue, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Sunday hailed the launch of the Afghan army’s new special operations corps, declaring that “we are with you and we will stay with you.”
Gen. John Nicholson’s exhortation of continued support for the Afghans suggested that the Pentagon may have won its argument that America’s military must stay engaged in the conflict in order to ensure terrorists don’t once again threaten the U.S. from safe havens in Afghanistan.
The White House announced that President Donald Trump will address the nation’s troops and the American people tonight to update the path forward in Afghanistan and South Asia.
Nicholson, speaking before the announcement, said the commandos and a plan to double the size of the Afghan’s special operations forces are critical to winning the war.
“I assure you we are with you in this fight. We are with you, and we will stay with you,” he said during a ceremony at Camp Morehead, a training base for Afghan commandos southeast of Kabul.
The Pentagon was awaiting a final announcement by Trump on a proposal to send nearly 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The added forces would increase training and advising of the Afghan forces and bolster counterterrorism operations against the Taliban and an Islamic State group affiliate trying to gain a foothold in the country.
The administration has been at odds for months over how to craft a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan amid frustrations that 16 years after 9/11 the conflict is stalemated.
The Afghan government controls only half the country and is beset by endemic corruption and infighting. The Islamic State group has been hit hard but continues to attempt major attacks, insurgents still find safe harbor in Pakistan, and Russia, Iran and others are increasingly trying to shape the outcome. At this point, everything the U.S. military has proposed points to keeping the Afghan government in place and struggling to turn a dismal quagmire around.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he is satisfied with how the administration formulated its new Afghanistan war strategy.
He said the deliberations, including talks at the Camp David presidential retreat on Friday, were done properly.
Months ago, Trump gave Mattis authority to set U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, but Mattis said he has not yet sent significant additional forces to the fight. He has said he would wait for Trump to set the strategic direction.
Mattis said Trump had been presented with multiple options. He did not name them, but others have said one option was to pull out of Afghanistan entirely.
At Camp Morehead, lines of Afghan commandos stood at attention as Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and a host of dignitaries sat under flag-draped canopies and welcomed the advancement in their nation’s longstruggling military.
In short remarks to the force, Nicholson said a defeat in Afghanistan would erode safety in the U.S. and “embolden jihadists around the world.”
That’s why, he said, the U.S. is helping to double the size of the Afghan commando force, adding that the ceremony “marks the beginning of the end of the Taliban.”