President Trump is receiving a proposal from top advisers to send thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and loosen the rules of engagement, all part of an effort to assist Afghan allies and put renewed pressure on the Taliban.
The plan on the table would send an additional 3,000-5,000 troops to the country.
In a significant shift, it also reportedly would give the Pentagon – as opposed to the White House – the authority to set troop numbers. A senior White House official told Fox News that the "Afghanistan review is done and President Trump will be briefed on it soon."
There currently are 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a high of 100,000 in 2011. About 1,400 troops were taken out of Afghanistan at the end of then-President Barack Obama’s term in office – the proposal before Trump would make up that gap, and then some.
Top military officials indicate an additional contingent is needed to prop up the Afghan military, at a time when the government is losing territory to the Taliban.
The head of U.S. Special Operations Command Army Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas told Congress last week he does not need more special ops troops but agreed with other senior U.S. commanders that more conventional troops would help train Afghan forces.
“More conventional forces that would thicken the ability to advise and assist Afghan forces, that would absolutely be to our benefit,” Thomas said.
Thomas said more troops would send a signal to the U.S.-backed Afghan government. “I think the critical factor is the commitment — the commitment to some enduring state that has not been described effectively in the past,” he said.
Plans for additional troops have been in the works for weeks. Late last month, the U.S. Army announced it would send approximately 1,500 troops from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division to Afghanistan to replace a unit stationed there. Fox News has learned the plan to increase American forces on the ground would likely mean the entire brigade would deploy next month, not just 1,500 troops.
Another source of troops could be in Army aviation. The Pentagon has long complained that Obama-era “troop caps” in Afghanistan meant that helicopter squadrons deploying to Afghanistan would take only the pilots and leave their mechanics behind.
Officials say this is a problem Defense Secretary Jim Mattis plans to remedy as soon as possible.
Another part of the proposal concerns the rules governing the use of military force on the battlefield. Thomas has said the rules of engagement in Afghanistan would need changing to thwart a resurgent Taliban. Last month, 140 Afghan soldiers were massacred in the northern part of the country.
In a sign that more American troops are finding themselves in harm’s way, three Army special operations soldiers—a Green Beret and two Army Rangers—were killed last month in combat in Afghanistan.
NATO also is expected to contribute to the troop increase in Afghanistan. Gen. John Nicholson, the head of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told Congress in February he needed a “few thousand” American and NATO forces to help train the Afghan Army, which kick-started this review process.
According to The Washington Post, Trump is expected to decide on the strategy before a May 25 NATO summit. It’s unclear where the president will fall on the proposals.
The Post also reported on divisions inside the White House, where critics reportedly call the plan “McMaster’s War,” in reference to National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
Bloomberg also reported that some in the White House are worried about McMaster’s supposed push toward the kind of “nation building” Trump opposed as a candidate.
Trump, however, has taken a tough approach as president to the broader war on terrorism. On his watch, the U.S. military dropped the so-called “mother of all bombs” on an Afghanistan target in April. The deployment of the largest non-nuclear bomb in the U.S. arsenal killed dozens of ISIS targets, officials said.
#1: interpreter To: Deckard (#0)
5. Trump will also have to take out Mawlawi Haibatah Akhundzada, the evil king of the Taliban in Afghanistan. He has already taken out many fighters there with one drop of the exceedingly great “Mother Of All Bombs” which gives Trump the upper hand.
And yes, it will no doubt require some additional US troops, but Trump primarily needs to drop a bunch more "exceedingly great hail" (Mother of All Bombs) as predicted in the Revelation. That will limit, or completely eliminate US casualties.
Here is the result:
6. The Good News is, that’s it. When all of Satan’s forces are killed off (as we are commanded to do in Luke 19:27), The long-awaited “Heaven on Earth” will commence, and the 24 Christian nations in NATO will be able to rule the Earth unhindered by Satan for a millennium.
interpreter posted on 2017-05-13 08:34:52 Reply Private Reply
#2: A K A Stone To: interpreter (#1)
Le Penn will win the election because god told you so.
phoney
A K A Stone posted on 2017-05-13 08:52:08 Reply Private Reply
#3: paraclete To: Deckard (#0)
He doesn't just want to send americans, he wants his allies to join it too.
However every time the fight is won, the victory is given away by allowing the primitives back in power. Afghanistan can never be won, it will always be a barbarous place and Dump should leave now
paraclete posted on 2017-05-13 09:26:56 Reply Private Reply
#4: sneakypete To: paraclete (#3)
I couldn't agree more.
If we were REALLY interested in ending this nonsense once and for all time,what we would do would be pull back completely and let them go back to murdering each other as each Prince tries to become the King of Arabia.
Once that happens and the dust settles,THEN we go in and kill him and everybody related to him,and repeat as necessary every time a different Islamic goober raises his head.
To get the money to do this we should seize ALL the bank accounts and other assets of ANYONE found to be contributing to Jihad,and then killing them,also.
Screw the current and past "Strategy" of fighting a enemy to a draw so they get discouraged and quit. They declared total war on us,so it's past the time when we should declare total war on them,and you don't have to worry about dead tribal rulers breaking treaties. By the time we get through with them and start to back off they need to be looking back on the Crusades as "the good old days".
sneakypete posted on 2017-05-13 10:51:08 Reply Private Reply
#5: interpreter To: A K A Stone (#2)
No, Le Penn is NOT in my mid-year predictions.
In case you missed them, here they are again:
1. Trump (the 45th rider of the pale horse) will be able to get rid of Bashar Assad, But it will be difficult if Moscow intervenes, and God forbid, for it could lead to MAD.*
2. Trump together with some NATO nations and the Kurds, will also take out Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi— The demon-possessed king in Raqqa (or wherever he is trying to hide from Trump & company).
3. Trump & company will also take out Kim Jong-Un, the evil little whore in Pyongyang. (See commentary on chapter 17 for more on little whores of the atheist kind).
4. Trump will no doubt also have to take out Hassan Rouhani, the evil king in Tehran. Because it is very accurately pointed to by the Jerusalem-Euphrates direction.
5. Trump will also have to take out Mawlawi Haibatah Akhundzada, the evil king of the Taliban in Afghanistan. He has already taken out many fighters there with one drop of the exceedingly great “Mother Of All Bombs” which gives Trump the upper hand.
6. The Good News is, that’s it. When all of Satan’s forces are killed off (as we are commanded to do in Luke 19:27), The long-awaited “Heaven on Earth” will commence, and the 24 Christian nations in NATO will be able to rule the Earth unhindered by Satan for a millennium.
*Mutual Assured Destruction
interpreter posted on 2017-05-13 11:23:29 Reply Private Reply
#6: randge To: A K A Stone, interpreter (#2)
Yer supposed to read the Bible, not smoke it.
randge posted on 2017-05-13 15:38:32 Reply Private Reply
#7: Deckard To: interpreter (#1)
Deckard posted on 2017-05-13 19:59:54 Reply Private Reply
#8: Stoner To: sneakypete (#4)
Then, when they slow down and are not killing each other fast enough - " We nuke the place from orbit, its the only way to be sure "
Turn them into a glass parking lot. Piss on Muhammad, Problem solved
Stoner posted on 2017-05-15 22:11:51 Reply Private Reply