U.S. Not Going Anywhere: Tillerson Message to Taliban

U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson said the new U.S. strategy was intended to send a strong message to the Taliban that “we are not going anywhere”.

“The recently announced policy was a dramatic shift from a time-based military strategy to a conditions-based strategy which means it will be dictated by conditions on the ground informed by battlefield commanders,” he said during an interview.

Tillerson said that in Donald Trump speech he made it clear that no time frame will be given to achieve the target so it is a clear message to all that US is not going anywhere.

“Trump has delegated significant authority to Defence Secretary (James) Mattis to set troop levels, but also has been able to delegate for the military commanders in the field, decision-making, to begin to turn the tide against the Taliban,” he said.

“Now, all of this is directed at sending a message to the Taliban that we are not going anywhere. We’re going to be here,” Tillerson said.

“As we all know, the attack of 9/11 was organized and carried out from Afghanistan. So, in Afghanistan, we have to secure Afghanistan in a way that that can never occur again because there’s no territory available to organizations to do so,” he said.

This comes as Pakistan’s National Security Committee, headed by its prime minister and its president, has out rightly rejected US President Donald Trump’s South Asia policy which criticized Pakistan heavily for not doing enough and promoting terrorism in Afghanistan.