US President Donald Trump is withholding approval of a long-delayed Afghanistan war strategy and even mulling a radical shake-up in his national security team as he searches for a “game changer” after 16 years of indecisive conflict.
In a recent Situation Room meeting, Trump raised the idea of firing US Army General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, according to two officials with knowledge of the discussion.
He suggested installing his national security adviser, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, to oversee the mission, said the officials, who were not authorized to talk publicly and requested anonymity.
Trump has been frustrated by what he views as a stalemate. He wants a plan that would allow US forces to pull out once and for all.
At a White House lunch with military brass last week, Trump publicly aired his misgivings, saying: “I want to find out why we’ve been there for 17 years.”
The Pentagon wants to send about 4,000 more US forces to expand training of Afghan military forces and beef up US counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda, a growing Islamic State group affiliate and other extremist groups.
However, the troop deployment, which would augment an already existing US force of at least 8,400 troops, has been held up amid broader strategy questions, including how to engage regional powers in an effort to stabilize the fractured nation.
The powers include US friends and foes, from Pakistan and India to China, Russia and Iran.
Pentagon plans are not calling for a radical departure from the limited approach endorsed by former US president Barack Obama and several officials have credited Trump with rightly asking tough questions, such as how the prescribed approach might lead to success.
Trump has not welcomed the military’s recommendations with “high-five enthusiasm,” a senior White House official said.
Several meetings involving Trump’s National Security Council have been tense as the US president demanded answers from top advisers about why US forces needed to be in Afghanistan.
Another US official with knowledge of the conversation reported Trump being less interested in hearing about how to restore Afghanistan to long-term stability, and more concerned about dealing a swift and definitive blow to militant groups in the country.
The White House has even offered its own, outside-the-box thinking.
Officials said Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, have been pushing a plan to have contractors fight the war in Afghanistan instead of US troops.
Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik Prince, the brother of US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, was approached by Trump’s top advisers to develop proposals to gradually swap out US troops and put military contractors in their place, a US military official said.
The US military has frowned on such proposals.
It believes boosting troop levels would accelerate progress in training Afghan troops and its air force, and help counterterrorism teams pursue targets even more aggressively.
They point to improvements among Afghan forces and in anti-corruption efforts.
US military leaders — including McMaster, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis and US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Joseph Dunford — are all said to be on the same page, as is US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
US military officials also have defended Nicholson, saying any punishment of him would be unfair because he has not been given the forces he says he needs.
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