News / Military
By Howard Altman / Tampa Bay Times / July 8, 2016
PHOTO: Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, briefs reporters on his way to Kabul, Afghanistan, for a a visit to the CentCom region. (Howard Altman | Times)
KABUL, Afghanistan — During his early years in office, President Barack Obama boosted the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan from 30,000 to a peak of 100,000 in 2011 to help stabilize the war-torn country.
A reduction to 8,400 troops should leave enough to carry out the new U.S. mission here — train, advise and assist Afghan security forces, and conduct counterterror missions against jihadi groups, Army Gen. Joseph Votel said as he arrived Friday in Afghanistan from his U.S. Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base.
Among the reasons for Votel’s confidence: The reduction is not as deep as Obama originally planned and allied nations might step in to help fill the gap.
Votel arrived in Afghanistan the same week Obama announced his decision to keep 8,400 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through the end of his term. He earlier had put the number at 5,500. The United States has 10,000 troops in Afghanistan now.
“I don’t think the reductions that we are taking are going to impact the principal missions that we are doing,” Votel told a small group of reporters accompanying him on a trip through Afghanistan and other countries in the CentCom region. “What I think you are seeing is a little bit of tailoring of our effort on the ground here that takes into consideration some of the improvements that the Afghan security forces have achieved over the last couple of years.”
Votel is making his fifth trip to the region since taking command of CentCom on March 31. It is his second trip with reporters.
As commander of CentCom, Votel oversees U.S. military operations in one of the world’s most restive regions, a dangerous swath of territory made up of 20 nations stretching from Egypt east to Pakistan. It includes Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran and the Gulf States.
Votel said he is traveling the region to gain a better understanding of what’s happening with U.S. and partner forces, to reinforce relations with allies here, and to make sure “CentCom headquarters remains responsive to the forces in the field and that U.S. military forces in the Central region remain responsive to our international partners.”
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The trip comes at a tumultuous time.
A Taliban attack on a convoy of Afghan police cadets June 30 left more than 30 dead. A bombing in Baghdad by Islamic State on Sunday killed 250. And a spate of attacks across the globe, either inspired or directed by the Islamic State, has killed almost 300 since June.
Votel also arrived in Kabul as world leaders — including Obama, Carter and Secretary of State John Kerry — are meeting for two days at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland, to plan future missions for the alliance of 28 nations.
One of those missions is the continuing effort to stabilize Afghanistan.
The NATO mission dubbed Resolute Support will continue beyond 2016 and contributions to the funding of Afghan forces will continue until 2020, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently told reporters.
Initial reaction to Obama’s decision to keep more troops there “has been very uniformly positive by our partners, certainly by the Afghans and others in the region,” Votel said. “I think it sends a very hopeful message to our coalition and I think it will encourage our partners to continue to contribute in a significant way.”
He said the troop reduction offers a chance for America’s allies in the fight to continue their support and even fill in the gap, “some probably beyond the levels they have.”
The reduction in U.S. forces, beginning sometime between September and November, will be achieved by relocating some work that doesn’t necessarily need to be done in Afghanistan, he said.
Votel acknowledged that the reductions come as Afghan forces are “taking a lot of casualties” while fighting a resurgent Taliban that has aligned itself with other groups while exploiting perceived Afghan security forces weaknesses.
Battles between the Taliban and Islamic State haven’t helped the Afghans either, Votel said. The two fundamentalist Islam groups pursue different ends — the Taliban bent on regaining the control of Afghanistan it lost 15 years ago in American-led attacks, and the Islamic State seeking to establish a Sunni Muslim nation including Syria and Iraq.
“I think we have to be very, very concerned about the Islamic State expansion and desire to legitimize this so-called caliphate they are trying to achieve,” Votel said. “I think the infighting between the Taliban and Islamic State and Khorasan and other groups just highlights the complexities of the environment in which we are dealing. And it really highlights why it is important to stay with Afghanistan and help them through this very difficult period.”
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The long war in Afghanistan, launched to deny al-Qaida a base of operations, has left an indelible mark on the U.S., its allies and the people of Afghanistan.
More than 3,500 coalition troops have been killed supporting the war, including more than 2,300 from the United States, according to iCasualties.org. It remains a dangerous place, with four more U.S. troops killed here this year. For Afghans, it has been even bloodier, with more than 92,000 killed, according to the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
The Watson Institute estimates the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost U.S taxpayers more than $4 trillion.
How long U.S. forces remain in Afghanistan is a decision to be made by the next president, who takes office on Jan. 20. Votel said if it were up to him, the U.S. presence would continue.
“I think we have made a commitment and I think my personal opinion is we do have to kind of see this through,” he said. “I do think it is important to stick with our partners and make sure they are capable of long term sustainable capability.”
The attack on Baghdad shows the Islamic State “is having difficulty being the state threat they wanted to be and they are resorting to what they are, and that is a terrorist organization,” Votel said. “And so you are seeing much more use of these types of terrorist tactics because they are trying to reverse the negative momentum that is moving in their direction.”
The “horrific, horrific attack in Baghdad” is a diversion designed to draw the attention of Iraqi security forces away from other areas, he said.
“I think they are going to be unsuccessful in doing that.”
Still, Votel said, steps are being taken “to ensure we can look out after those kinds of threats.”
The threats extend beyond the Middle East, he said.
“ISIL is an organization that has demonstrated the ability to attack,” Votel said. “The desire to attack not only our homeland, but also to attack other capitals. That threat remains very, very serious. One I think we are taking very seriously, so we are going after their external attack capabilities.”
The jihadi group, target of more than 13,000 coalition airstrikes since August 2014, recently lost its hold on the Iraqi city of Falluja and is being pressured throughout its remaining territory in Iraq and Syria but still holds on to Mosul in Iraq and its putative capital of Raqqa in Syria.
Though continuing to lose ground, the Islamic State is still trading territory with forces arrayed against it, including the Iraqi security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Syrian Arabs and Kurds, and Russian-backed Syrian government forces
The Islamic State is “losing militarily,” Votel said, but he added that “the fight is far from over.”
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