U.S. Military Sprints to Stem Insurgent Tide in Afghanistan

The U.S. military is rushing to demonstrate it is making progress in Afghanistan during a critical period that will test President Donald Trump’s strategy.

According to Washington Post, U.S. military leaders say the arrival of new troops and aircraft, along with a renewed mission to advise local operations more closely, will help reverse a Taliban resurgence that has exposed the fragility of the long American project in Afghanistan.

“This is not another year of the same thing we’ve been doing for 17 years,” Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a tour of military facilities across Afghanistan last week. “This is a fundamentally different approach.”

In the meantime, the U.S. task force southwest commanding general, Brig. Roger Turner declared that the regional actors support the opposition groups in Afghanistan.

“The Taliban in Helmand couldn’t exist without external support. They get the external support from a number of regional actors. I believe that if the Afghans only had to deal with the Taliban, they could deal with it. But the Taliban being enabled by regional actors,” Gen. Roger Turner said.

In the meantime, Afghan Parliament representatives believe that Pakistan should be further pressed for the peace and stability in the country.

“Bringing peace to Afghanistan needs an international approach. We cannot provide security just by adding more forces and increasing equipment,” Nahid Farid, a member of Parliament said.

This comes as Pakistan has recently called upon the Afghan government and the Resolution Support Mission to do more to eliminate terrorists’ sanctuaries within Afghanistan.