Pivoting back to the ‘good war’.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has approved expanded authorities that will allow U.S. troops to accompany and conduct offensive operations with Afghan forces under certain conditions, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced Friday.
The expanded authorities, proposed by Gen. John Nicholson, the new top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, will allow troops to now accompany Afghan conventional forces on missions and conduct offensive strikes against the Taliban or other threats when the strike would have a “strategic effect on the battlefield,” a senior defense official said on the condition he not be named.
Previously U.S. advisers were limited to working with Afghan special forces. U.S. firepower was limited to specific strikes in defense of their own troops or in the defense of the Afghan forces they were advising, in circumstances of counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaida and the Islamic State group or in situations “in extremis” – where there was a specific threat that warranted a response from U.S. forces.
The expanded role for U.S. forces in Afghanistan will also apply to the use of close air support and surveillance drones in offensive strikes, the official said. While U.S. forces will be accompanying conventional Afghan forces, they will not be on the front lines, the official said.