U.S. Poised to Expand Military Effort Against Taliban in Afghanistan
U.S. Poised to Expand Military Effort Against Taliban in Afghanistan by Missy Ryan and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post
President Trump’s most senior military and foreign policy advisers have proposed a major shift in strategy in Afghanistan that would effectively put the United States back on a war footing with the Taliban.
The new plan, which still needs the approval of the president, calls for expanding the U.S. military role as part of a broader effort to push an increasingly confident and resurgent Taliban back to the negotiating table, U.S. officials said.
The plan comes at the end of a sweeping policy review built around the president’s desire to reverse worsening security in Afghanistan and “start winning” again, said one U.S. official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
The new strategy, which has the backing of top Cabinet officials, would authorize the Pentagon, not the White House, to set troop numbers in Afghanistan and give the military far broader authority to use airstrikes to target Taliban militants. It would also lift Obama-era restrictions that limited the mobility of U.S. military advisers on the battlefield.
The net result of the changes would be to reverse moves by President Barack Obama to steadily limit the U.S. military role in Afghanistan, along with the risk to American troops and the cost of the war effort, more than 15 years after U.S. forces first arrived there.
Trump is expected to make a final call on the strategy before a May 25 NATO summit in Brussels that he plans to attend…
Deadlock: Mattis Vs. White House On Pentagon Nominees
Deadlock: Mattis Vs. White House On Pentagon Nominees by Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense
Chronic conflict between Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Trump White House has hobbled the nomination process for top Pentagon posts, a source familiar with the Trump personnel team tells Breaking Defense. In several cases, the source said, the Trump team recommended nominees with extensive experience and bipartisan respect — Rep. Randy Forbes, Sen. Jim Talent — only to have Mattis shoot them down. In others, Mattis picked outsider candidates — Philip Bilden, Mark Green — who later withdrew.
After more than 100 days in office, Mattis remains the only Trump appointee in place at the Pentagon, left without the usual support team of deputy, under, and assistant secretaries. It’s a lack that House Armed Services chairman Mac Thornberry has repeatedly and publicly lamented.
The problem isn’t just a slow rate of nominations: An extraordinary three nominees for service secretaries have withdrawn their names from consideration. Two billionaires — Bilden for Navy secretary and Vincent Viola for Army secretary — withdrew after being formally nominated, citing their unwillingness to divest themselves of assets to avoid possible legal or ethical entanglements…