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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 first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday that he had made decisions at Camp David, \u201cincluding on Afghanistan,\u201d but he did not say more about it. The expectation had been that he would agree to a modest boost in the U.S. war effort, while also addressing broader political, economic and regional issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. Another, which Mattis had mentioned recently in Washington, was to hire private contractors to perform some of the U.S. military\u2019s duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Camp Morehead, lines of Afghan commandos stood at attention as Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and a host of proud dignitaries sat under flag-draped canopies and welcomed the advancement in their nation\u2019s long-struggling military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In short remarks to the force, Nicholson said a defeat in Afghanistan would erode safety in the U.S. and \u201cembolden jihadists around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why, he said, the U.S. is helping to double the size of the Afghan commando force, adding that the ceremony \u201cmarks the beginning of the end of the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maj. Gen. James Linder, the head of U.S. and NATO special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the nearly 4,000 troops requested by the Pentagon for Afghanistan includes about 460 trainers for his staff to help increase the size of the special operations forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he\u2019d be able expand training locations and insure they have advisers at all the right levels, including on the new Afghan special operations corps staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a senior U.S. military officer in Kabul, increasing the number of American troops would allow the military to quickly send additional advisers or airstrike support to two simultaneous operations. Right now, the official said, they can only do so for one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officer said it would allow the U.S. to send fighter aircraft, refueling aircraft and surveillance aircraft to multiple locations for missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officer was not authorized to discuss the details publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afghan military commanders have been clear that they want and expect continued U.S. military help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pulling out American forces \u201cwould be a total failure,\u201d Col. Abdul Mahfuz, the Afghan intelligence agency chief for Qarahbagh, north of Kabul, said Saturday. And he said that substituting paid contractors for U.S. troops would be a formula for continuing the war, rather than completing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mahfuz and other Afghan commanders spoke at a shura council meeting at Bagram air base attended also by U.S. military officers and Afghan intelligence officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Col. Abdul Mobin, who commands an Afghan mechanized battalion in the 111th Division, said any reduction in the U.S. military presence \u201cleads to total failure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking through an interpreter, he added that operations by Afghan and U.S. special operations forces have been very effective, and that \u201cthe presence of U.S. military personnel is felt and considered a positive step for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he\u2019d like to see an additional 10,000 American troops in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Burns reported from Amman, Jordan.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s new special operations corps, declaring that \u201cwe are with you and we will stay with you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,11,47,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[6466],"class_list":["post-46089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-mideast-africa","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"BZN4P7AIUFGXBCU6LNTNXYJGCY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/08\/20\/mattis-tight-lipped-on-new-afghanistan-war-strategy\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n