Posted on 06/16/2017 9:22:25 AM PDT by blam
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan, a Trump administration official said Thursday, hoping to break a stalemate in a war that has now passed to a third U.S. commander in chief. The deployment will be the largest of American manpower under Donald Trump’s young presidency.
The decision by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week, the official said. It follows Trump’s move to give Mattis the authority to set troop levels and seeks to address assertions by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that he doesn’t have enough forces to help Afghanistan’s army against a resurgent Taliban insurgency. The rising threat posed by Islamic State extremists, evidenced in a rash of deadly attacks in the capital city of Kabul, has only fueled calls for a stronger U.S. presence, as have several recent American combat deaths.
The bulk of the additional troops will train and advise Afghan forces, according to the administration official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss details of the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A smaller number would be assigned to counterterror operations against the Taliban and IS, the official said.
Asked for comment, a Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said, “No decisions have been made.”
Daulat Waziri, spokesman for Afghanistan’s defense ministry was reluctant to comment on specifics Friday but said the Afghan government supports the U.S. decision to send more troops. “The United States knows we are in the fight against terrorism, ” he said. “We want to finish this war in Afghanistan with the help of the NATO alliance.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Pentagon will formally deny AP story that Mattis has decided to send 4,000 troops to #Afghanistan. Statement from @ChiefPentSpox coming.
Candidate Trump did not rely on Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul for any advice. Pres. Trump knowingly turned the military, foreign policy and intelligence sectors over to the usual Council on Foreign Relations/Goldman-Sachs cabal. It doesn’t seem to have helped him.
Perhaps the opposition to Trump isn’t based on politics at all but rather just personal for not being a CFR/G-S insider. They’re entitled to ALL the big jobs, dontcha know!
WTF?? NO!!! enough of wasting our valuable soldiers lives for these idiots!!
We’ve had our hands stuck in these moslem countries for decades now, and all that I see we’ve accomplished is to let the scorpions crawl up our arms, and into our shirts.
I see them all over now. Filthy neocon policies are the death of American security, liberty and prosperity.
“There’s nothing in Afghanistan worth one drop of American blood.”
Poppies. Neocons don’t care about American blood.
I back Trump and I back Mattis, but I don’t like this.
Air support, yes. Boots on the ground, no.
I am very sorry to hear this.
What a waste of lives and resources.
We need to stop protecting some Muslims from other Muslims.
Oh, dear. So sorry. Please thank him on my behalf for his service.
They can make them faster than we can kill them.
Unless we are talking about genocide, that’s the way it will remain.
We need to get out of there and let them sort themselves out.
Torch the poppy fields and LEAVE!!
Stop the insanity!
No matter what we do, the Taliban will be in control of Afghanistan 10 days after we leave.
Not worth one more drop of American blood.
Bring the troops home.
We have already spilled too much blood and treasure for nothing.
The left and other enemies could not ask for anything more than the USA stuck in perpetual war with no end in sight, and at home, the echoes of scandal and impeachment. President Trump may very well be already lame duck.
This is bull shit. I am against this and not happy with President Trump. They should not be there. Bomb the place and bring our troops home.
I’m glad to see I’m not alone in saying get the hell out of that hell hole.
As repugnant as that thought is, someday in the the distant future it may come down to that — us or them. Since the end of WWII the world has been in a slow downward spiral.
The lunacy will never end.
At least by the next day. George Bush badly botched the reaction to 911. I talked to a friend about two weeks after 911. We both agreed, “It is already too late.”
The USSR had no problems being brutal and they lost. We are under a nutty delusion that a combination of finesse and kindness we can pacify that place.
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