After 16 years of conflict in Afghanistan, is the US military just getting started – PB/TK
$700 Billion and 16 Years at War Is a ‘Modest Amount,’ U.S. Officers Say – By Asawin Suebsaeng and Spencer Ackerman / July 24 2017
The U.S. military in Afghanistan is pushing a plan for American troops to remain in the country so long that they will be, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from native Afghan troops.
It’s an expansive approach that has run into deep opposition at the White House, and is beyond what President Donald Trump appears prepared to approve.
According to the latest military figures, the U.S.-backed Afghan government controls only 60 percent of Afghan districts, after 16 years of fighting. But if that number can be somehow be brought up to 80 percent, a new study prepared for the U.S. military command in Kabul posits, it could provide a “tipping point” compelling the Taliban to sue for peace.
That formula is based on an internal review of past insurgencies that experts consider dubious. Nor is the military proposing a substantial infusion of U.S. combat forces to secure it—nothing like Barack Obama’s 2010-2012 troop surge, whose gains were minimal and fleeting. But even without a large commitment of troops, cash, or other resources, those familiar with the military’s framework consider it a throwback to the era of counterinsurgency warfare in Afghanistan, something the Trump team has sought to avoid.
Continue to thedailybeast.com article: http://www.thedailybeast.com/dollar700-billion-and-16-years-at-war-is-a-modest-amount-us-officers-say
