23/8/2017 Tillerson: US Set to 'Turn the Tide' in Afghan War With New Strategy

USA

Tillerson: US Set to 'Turn the Tide' in Afghan War

With New Strategy
August 22, 2017 8:00 PM Cindy Saine

STATE DEPARTMENT — President Donald Trump's adjustment of U.S.

strategy in Afghanistan will alter the dynamics in the United States' longest
war, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday, because American military
commanders will be newly empowered to make decisions based on conditions
on the ground, rather than on local politics or other factors.

"The fighting will still be borne by the Afghan forces, by their military and
their security forces," Tillerson told reporters in a rare appearance at the
State Department briefing room. "We believe that we can turn the tide of
what has been a losing battle over the last year and a half or so, and at least
stabilize the situation and hopefully start seeing some battlefield victories."

Tillerson: New Strategy Will 'Turn the Tide' From Losing Battle in
Afghanistan

In his discussion of Trump's address to the nation on Monday night, Tillerson

praised "the Afghan forces who have fought very bravely, but they've been
fighting, I think, with less than the full capabilities that we can give them."
He said Trump's Afghanistan strategy di ers from those of his two
predecessors at the White House, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, in that
it does not set artificial timelines or announce troop levels in advance.

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23/8/2017 Tillerson: US Set to 'Turn the Tide' in Afghan War With New Strategy

U.S. actions in Afghanistan will be based on conditions on the ground,

Tillerson said: "This entire e ort is intended to put pressure on the Taliban,
to have the Taliban understand that you will not win a battlefield victory."

Objective is negotiation

Continuing his remarks, phrased as if they were directed to the Taliban,

Tillerson said: "We may not win one, but neither will you. So at some point,
we have to come to the negotiating table and find a way to bring this to an
end."

Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who was in Baghdad Tuesday, said he had
not yet decided how many troops to send to the South Asian country, and
would not do so until he had consulted General Joseph Dunford, chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Sta .

In his address Monday night from a military base outside Washington, Trump
said he would not be specific about how many more troops might be sent into
Afghanistan, or discuss plans for further military activities. He declared this
was part of a "condition-based approach" to defeating terrorism there.

However, U.S. sources who refused to be identified said Trump has already
approved sending up to 4,000 more American service members to
Afghanistan, to enlarge the current force of about 8,400 U.S. troops.

Most American soldiers in the war zone are advising Afghan forces, but some
are tasked with carrying out counterterrorism operations against groups such
as the Taliban or the Islamic State's Afghan a liate. Overall U.S. troop
strength is down significantly from seven years ago, when nearly 100,000
Americans were deployed in Afghanistan at the height of the Obama
administration's "surge" program to overwhelm the Taliban.

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23/8/2017 Tillerson: US Set to 'Turn the Tide' in Afghan War With New Strategy

After years of deriding the U.S. war in Afghanistan as a "complete waste,"

Trump on Monday explained why he now believes it is in the United States'
interest to remain committed to the country. His goal, he said, is to stop the
re-emergence of safe havens in which terrorists can threaten America and
make sure they do not get their hands on nuclear weapons.

Regional approach

Tillerson echoed Trump's statement that the U.S. is seeking a regional

approach to solving Afghanistan's di cult problems, including India as well
as Pakistan.

Pakistan was sure to be dismayed by president's inclusion of India, its

traditional rival, in e orts to resolve the crisis in Afghanistan, as well as by
this caution from the top U.S. diplomat: "Pakistan must adopt a di erent
approach, and we are ready to work with them to help them protect
themselves against ... terrorist organizations" operating in Pakistani territory.

However, Tillerson added, Pakistan must "begin to end" its e orts in the
Afghan border region "that are disrupting our e orts at peace."

"What everybody should be banking on," former U.S. diplomat David Sedney
said, "is [that] the United States will be with Afghanistan and make sure that
it never again becomes a haven for terrorists. That means that the Taliban are
not going to come back. And Pakistan must stop supporting the Taliban."

Sedney told VOA's Urdu program View 360: "Pakistan must take an
a rmative test to stop the Taliban leadership from meeting in Pakistan, to
stop arms and ammunition and explosives from coming from Pakistan into
Afghanistan. Pakistan now knows that it cannot wait out the United States."

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23/8/2017 Tillerson: US Set to 'Turn the Tide' in Afghan War With New Strategy

William Goodfellow, who is with the Center for International Policy, a public
policy research group in Washington, told the same VOA program that he did
not see Trump's announcement as a big change in U.S. strategy.

"I think the reason they're adding more troops is because they're worried
that the Taliban have the initiative and the American generals were saying,
'Well, we have a stalemate,' " Goodfellow said. "Well, we don't have a
stalemate. The American side is losing. And I think adding more troops will
try to bring back a situation where you actually have a stalemate and set the
stage for a negotiated settlement."

Evaluations di er

Analysts' overall reviews of the president's address were mixed.

"The president failed to define the goals or objectives that would direct the
actions of the whole of government approach. The only thing he
demonstrated was that his original belief, that you can rip troops out of a
combat zone without considering the fallout of that action, was in fact
wrong," said Moira Whelan, a partner of BlueDot Strategies and a former
senior State Department o cial.

"Trump repealed his original Afghanistan position, but he failed to replace it

with something that will make America safer," she added.

The conflict in Afghanistan began within weeks of the al-Qaida terror

network's attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. At the
time, a Taliban administration was in control in Kabul, and al-Qaida had
freedom of operations in much of the country. Regular government was
restored in Afghanistan and the Taliban was expelled from the capital, but
the country's factionalized unity government and systemic corruption have
resulted in the war dragging on for almost 16 years.

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23/8/2017 Tillerson: US Set to 'Turn the Tide' in Afghan War With New Strategy

In an expression of his frustration, Trump said leaders in Kabul must realize

that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan is not unlimited. The American
people, he warned, expect "to see real reforms and real results."

VOA's Steve Herman, Victor Beattie, Bill Gallo, Ayaz Gul and Chris Hannas
contributed to this report.

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