AuH20
05-15-2017, 07:02 AM
President Trump will be making a decision soon—though likely not this week, I'm told—about whether to send at least 3,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. That's the main element of a proposal presented to Trump by the National Security Council's principals committee (the whole of the president's national security and military advisers) late last month. Read Eli Lake for more details about the plan's provisions, including increased funds for the Afghan police and military.
"Most important," Lake writes, citing administration sources, "the strategy would jettison President Barack Obama's approach of setting arbitrary deadlines for the withdrawal of U.S. forces and instead would link the participation of U.S. troops inside the country to meeting clear conditions on the battlefield, such as winning back territory from the Taliban and denying safe haven to al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other bad actors."
The goal, should the president adopt the plan, would be to stabilize the government in Kabul led by President Ashraf Ghani against a resurgent Taliban as well affiliates of ISIS and al Qaeda operating in Afghanistan. That's what national security advisor H.R. McMaster, one of the plan's main proponents internally, told reporters last week.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/on-afghanistan-its-bannon-vs.-almost-everybody/article/2008055
"Most important," Lake writes, citing administration sources, "the strategy would jettison President Barack Obama's approach of setting arbitrary deadlines for the withdrawal of U.S. forces and instead would link the participation of U.S. troops inside the country to meeting clear conditions on the battlefield, such as winning back territory from the Taliban and denying safe haven to al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other bad actors."
The goal, should the president adopt the plan, would be to stabilize the government in Kabul led by President Ashraf Ghani against a resurgent Taliban as well affiliates of ISIS and al Qaeda operating in Afghanistan. That's what national security advisor H.R. McMaster, one of the plan's main proponents internally, told reporters last week.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/on-afghanistan-its-bannon-vs.-almost-everybody/article/2008055