New U.S. tactic calls for afghan troops to retreat to cities: NYT

NEW YORK, Jul 29 (APP):Shifting gears on Afghanistan, the Trump administration has reportedly asked American-backed Afghan troops to retreat from sparsely populated areas, a move that would ensure the Taliban will remain in control of vast stretches of the country.
In a report published Sunday, The New York Times, citing three unnamed US officials, said the plan was outlined in a previously undisclosed part of the war strategy that President Donald Trump announced last year.
The tactic, according to the newspaper, is meant to protect military forces from attacks at isolated and vulnerable outposts, and focuses on protecting cities such as Kabul, the capital, and other population centers.
The withdrawal resembles strategies embraced by both the Bush and Obama administrations that have started and stuttered over the nearly 17-year war, the Times said, adding that it will effectively ensure that the Taliban and other insurgent groups will hold on to territory that they have already seized, leaving the government in Kabul to safeguard the capital and cities such as Kandahar, Kunduz, Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad.
“The retreat to the cities is a searing acknowledgment that the American-installed government in Afghanistan remains unable to lead and protect the country’s sprawling rural population,” the Times said.
“Over the years, as waves of American and NATO troops have come and left in repeated cycles, the government has slowly retrenched and ceded chunks of territory to the Taliban, cleaving Afghanistan into disparate parts and ensuring a conflict with no end in sight.”
When he announced his new war strategy last year, Trump declared that Taliban and ISIL/Da’esh insurgents in Afghanistan “need to know they have nowhere to hide, that no place is beyond the reach of American might and American arms.”
After the declared end of combat operations in 2014, most American troops withdrew to major population areas in the country, leaving Afghan forces to defend remote outposts. Many of those bases fell in the following months.
During a news conference last month in Brussels, Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of the American-led coalition in Afghanistan, said remote outposts were being overrun by the Taliban, which was seizing local forces vehicles and equipment.
“There is a tension there between what is the best tactic militarily and what are the needs of the society,” General Nicholson said.
The new strategy depends on the Afghan government’s willingness to pull back its own forces, the Times said, adding that some Afghan commanders have resisted the American effort to do so, fearing local populations would feel betrayed.
“Should Afghan troops pull back now, defending remote pockets of the country would mostly be left to the local police, which are more poorly trained than the military and far more vulnerable to Taliban violence,” the report said, noting that in some areas, police officers have cut deals with the Taliban to protect themselves from attacks.
Not all of the roughly 14,000 United States troops currently in Afghanistan have pulled back to cities. Some who are training and advising Afghan troops as part of Trump’s war strategy are stationed in bases in remote areas and smaller towns.