11/9/2017

AFGHANISTAN/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Nearly three months after President Trump announced his new strategy for the war in Afghanistan, the United States and its international allies are still trying to come up with the troops required to carry it out.
The relatively few American and international troops in Afghanistan are charged with training the Afghan military and with helping them beat back Taliban forces. With the militants at their strongest level since the start of the war in 2001, the issue of troop levels has renewed importance…
Though military officials deem that increase necessary, the Pentagon has also stressed that for the American-led mission to succeed, more international forces, chiefly from NATO members, would be required…
There are more than 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan today, including some who are part of a counterterrorism mission, and roughly 6,500 forces from NATO and other countries. Most of the unfilled positions would be for training Afghan security forces, whose future success is one of the pillars of Mr. Trump’s new South Asia strategy.”

-Thomas Gibbons-Neff, “U.S.-Led Mission in Afghanistan Lacks Troops for New Strategy,” The New York Times online, Nov. 9, 2017