U.S.-Led Mission in Afghanistan Lacks Troops for New Strategy
- 6 years ago
U.S.-Led Mission in Afghanistan Lacks Troops for New Strategy
"We’ve fought most of the year," Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the commanding officer of American and international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday, "however, at the lowest level of capability
that we’ve ever had in the past 16 years." Since February, General Nicholson has requested several thousand additional troops for the mission, to break what he calls a stalemate in the Afghan conflict.
Nicholson said that We need our allies to fill these billets,
He said he had asked NATO members and other countries involved in the conflict to send more soldiers, but, "We’re still waiting for this to all play out." There are more than 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan today, including some who are part of a counterterrorism mission,
and roughly 6,500 forces from NATO and other countries.
On Thursday, even though the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the alliance was committing more
soldiers to Afghanistan, American officials said efforts to reach the required troop levels were continuing.
The shortages include personnel to train parts of the Afghan security apparatus, like the Afghan special operations forces
and the Afghan Air Force, both of which have been championed by American and Afghan officials, including President Ashraf Ghani, as integral to the country’s four-year "road map" to drive violence down.
The NATO troop shortage is not new: It has plagued the American-led mission in Afghanistan
since the alliance decided to aggressively start training the Afghan military.
"We’ve fought most of the year," Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the commanding officer of American and international forces in Afghanistan, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday, "however, at the lowest level of capability
that we’ve ever had in the past 16 years." Since February, General Nicholson has requested several thousand additional troops for the mission, to break what he calls a stalemate in the Afghan conflict.
Nicholson said that We need our allies to fill these billets,
He said he had asked NATO members and other countries involved in the conflict to send more soldiers, but, "We’re still waiting for this to all play out." There are more than 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan today, including some who are part of a counterterrorism mission,
and roughly 6,500 forces from NATO and other countries.
On Thursday, even though the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the alliance was committing more
soldiers to Afghanistan, American officials said efforts to reach the required troop levels were continuing.
The shortages include personnel to train parts of the Afghan security apparatus, like the Afghan special operations forces
and the Afghan Air Force, both of which have been championed by American and Afghan officials, including President Ashraf Ghani, as integral to the country’s four-year "road map" to drive violence down.
The NATO troop shortage is not new: It has plagued the American-led mission in Afghanistan
since the alliance decided to aggressively start training the Afghan military.