US Pick for Afghanistan Commander Urges Caution in Withdrawing Troops

Lt. Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson Jr., now commander of NATO’s Allied Land Command in Turkey, was formally nominated to take over the Afghanistan role less than a day before his confirmation hearing, an unusually quick turnaround for the process.

In announcing the Nicholson nomination, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook quoted Defense Secretary Ash Carter as expressing gratitude for Campbell’s contributions, saying he has helped put Afghanistan on a “better path”.

At Campbell’s urging, President Barack Obama decided last October to abandon his plan to reduce troop levels to near zero by the end of 2016. He said they do have some shortcomings “that simply take years and years to develop” – such as such as intelligence collection and air support.

But the result of that decision has been to force American policymakers to face up to a prospect they had long sought to avoid: a more or less permanent USA military presence in Afghanistan that could stretch out for decades to come.

Senior US commanders expressed surprise at Al-Qaeda’s resilience in Afghanistan, as well as the Taliban’s continued seizure of large areas of contested territory.

Nicholson said the Afghans still retained lead fighting responsibility against the Taliban but pledged not to allow associated forces to overrun the southern city of Kandahar.

“It is time to immediately halt US troop withdrawals and eliminate any target date for withdrawal”.

According to the (extract of interview) US Secretary of State John Kerry who during an interview mentioned few broad contours of US policy in Afghanistan while explaining the reason behind investing so much political capital in Afghanistan of all the global hotspots. Mindful of the swift collapse suffered by U.S.-trained forces in Iraq in 2011 after the precipitous withdrawal of American forces there, the Obama administration wasn’t about to let the same thing happen again in Afghanistan. While he did not explicitly criticize Obama’s drawdown plans, unlike current commander John Campbell, Nicholson indicated his inclination toward a more aggressive United States posture, citing the rise of Isis in Nangarhar and al-Qaida in Kandahar. The House Armed Services Committee said this week that Campbell will testify on the situation in Afghanistan next Tuesday. “Nor will any politician be able to schedule an end to the threat of radical extremist terrorism emanating from Afghanistan or the region more broadly”. “There will always be some level of violence in Afghanistan”.

A Pentagon report released last month said the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in the second half of 2015, with Taliban militants staging more attacks and inflicting far more casualties on Afghan forces. He also served as deputy commanding general for operations in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012.