Trump commits US to open-ended Afghan war
22 Aug 2017 10:50 PM IST
WASHINGTON/KABUL: President Donald Trump committed US troops to an open-ended war in Afghanistan, a decision the Afghan government welcomed on Tuesday but which Taliban insurgents warned would make the country a "graveyard for the American empire".
Trump offered few specifics in a speech on Monday but promised a stepped-up military campaign against the Taliban who have gained ground against US-backed Afghan government forces. He also singled out Pakistan for harboring militants in safe havens on its soil.
Trump, who had in the past advocated a US withdrawal, acknowledged he was going against his instincts in approving the new campaign plan sought by his military advisers but said he was convinced that leaving posed more risk.
"The consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable," he said. "A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including IS and al- Qaeda, would instantly fill."
He promised an end to "nation-building" by US forces in what has become US' longest war and stressed that ultimately Afghanistan's struggling police and army must defeat the Taliban. "The stronger the Afghan security forces become, the less we will have to do. Afghans will secure and build their own nation and define their own future. We want them to succeed." Most of the approximately 8,400 US troops in Afghanistan work with a NATO-led training and advising mission, with the rest part of a counter-terrorism force that mostly targets pockets of al Qaeda and IS fighters.
Officials said that he had signed off on Jim Mattis' plans to send about 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani welcomed the strategy and said it would increase the capacity of the training mission for Afghan forces.
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