APNewsBreak: About 4,000 more US troops to go to Afghanistan
Source: Associated Press
Associated Press
LOLITA C. BALDOR and ROBERT BURNS
June 15, 2017
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.
Although Trump has delegated authority for U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan, the responsibility for America's wars and the men and women who fight in them rests on his shoulders. Trump has inherited America's longest conflict with no clear endpoint or a defined strategy for American success, though U.S. troop levels are far lower than they were under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. In 2009, Obama authorized a surge of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, bringing the total there to more than 100,000, before drawing down over the rest of his presidency.
Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/apnewsbreak-us-send-almost-4-000-troops-afghanistan-010057519.html?soc_trk=gcm&soc_src=417ee61e-0346-3fdd-9dd8-10f364c9211a&.tsrc=notification-brknews
Remember how they called Hillary a "warmonger"?
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)there have been stories of Putin supplying money and arms to the Taliban. Interesting is it not. Must be a shit load of Oil to be had for Trump and Putin playing games with out Men and Women.
sinkingfeeling
(51,445 posts)How are you going to pay for this?
Raising the retirement age to 75?
Fuck off Dump!
RussBLib
(9,006 posts)I thought he said he wuz gunna wipe 'em out so fast it'd make my head spin!
I hope he resigns before he gets us all killed.
Many were immune
Far too many were not
Trumpian nightmare
heaven05
(18,124 posts)is a danger to all civilized and decent human beings, worldwide.....