Diplomat: NATO poised to extend Afghanistan mission

Gen. John F. Campbell, who was the top USA commander in Afghanistan until March and was among the retired generals who signed last week’s letter to Obama, said in an interview Friday that although he had not seen the specifics of the White House decision to expand US military authorities, he welcomed the move.

The US has a new commander in Afghanistan now- General John Nicholson.

Before the changes made at Gen. Nicholson’s behest, American air power was authorized only when USA forces were under direct threat and American combat missions in the country were limited to special operations teams. The White House has not yet received his recommendations.

President Obama pledged to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when he announced in 2007 that he was seeking the White House. The delay was probably prompted by the security situation on the ground.

237-a-14-(Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, at news conference)-“no denying that”-White House press secretary Josh Earnest says Afghanistan remains a unsafe place, and President Obama is ready to adjust his drawdown plans accordingly”. The official roster now includes about 320,000 members of the security forces, a USA military commander said earlier this week. The U.S.is now able to conduct airstrikes against the Taliban when needed in critical operations, and American troops can accompany and advise Afghan conventional forces on the ground, much like they have done with Afghan commandos.

The U.S. troop-cutting plan is facing renewed scrutiny in light of the Taliban’s resurgence.

After two fighting seasons on their own, Afghan forces have ceded almost 80 of Afghanistan’s 400-plus districts to Taliban control. The reason we need to restart combat operations is because the Afghan national security forces have utterly failed to secure their country.

US Secretary of Defense Aston Carter flew to Brussels to meet his North Atlantic Treaty Organisation counterparts on Monday. That amounts to an acknowledgement that the Afghans need more help than the Pentagon had anticipated a year ago, and it is a signal to allies not to abandon the U.S.-led coalition. As a result, those soldiers who form the backbone of the Afghan military have been timid and disorganized, a state USA officials blamed for such embarrassing lapses as the fall of Kunduz past year. “We’re now fighting an enemy that is more brutal”, Mr. Mohib said during a speech at the Hudson Institute in Washington.

Instead of ending the two wars he inherited, Obama is wrestling with an expanded set of conflicts as his presidency nears an end – not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also in Libya and Syria – with no end in sight. But he said Obama remained willing to review security in Afghanistan and its impact on force levels.

The decision to allow US forces to re-engage in the fight for Afghanistan could be a precursor to that kind of decision, Mr. Nelson suggested. Our people are going to be busy fending them off as well.

The diplomat said there have been no changes yet to the decision to reduce forces, and it will be possible to continue working with the Afghans in Kabul and all four of the regions with the lower USA troop levels.