U.S. President Donald Trump will lay out a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan in a prime-time television address Monday night, according to a White House statement Sunday.
The statement said Trump will be in Fort Myer in Arlington, Va., near Washington, D.C., to “provide an update on the path forward for America’s engagement in Afghanistan and South Asia.”
He is set to address troops and Americans starting 9 p.m. on his first day back at the White House, after spending the last two weeks on a “working vacation,” much of it spent at his private golf club in central New Jersey. He also spent two nights at his home at Trump Tower, his first visit to the New York skyscraper since taking office.
Trump and his national security team met at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland on Friday to hash out policy on South Asia.
Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, travelling in Afghanistan, said Sunday that the president has agreed on a new war strategy after 16 years of conflict, but declined to discuss details before Trump announces his decision.
Trump’s upcoming week also includes travel to Arizona to visit a Marine Corps facility in Yuma and hold a campaign rally in Phoenix on Tuesday. He stops in Reno, Nev., on Wednesday to address the American Legion convention.
Top commander in Afghanistan assures troops
Also Sunday, Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, hailed the launch of the Afghan army’s new special operations corps, declaring “we are with you and we will stay with you.”
Nicholson, speaking prior to the announcement about Trump’s Monday address, said the commandos and a plan to double the size of the Afghan’s special operations forces are critical to winning the war.
“I assure you we are with you in this fight. We are with you and we will stay with you,” he said during a ceremony at Camp Morehead, a training base for Afghan commandos southeast of Kabul.
U.S. President Donald Trump, shown Tuesday at a news conference at Trump Tower in New York, returns to the White House on Monday after a two-week ‘working vacation.’ A White House statement released Sunday said he will address troops and the American people on TV to discuss strategy on Afghanistan and South Asia. (The Associated Press)
The Pentagon was awaiting a final announcement by Trump on a proposal to send nearly 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The added forces would increase training and advising of the Afghan forces and bolster counterterrorism operations against the Taliban and an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliate trying to gain a foothold in
the country.
The administration has been at odds for months over how to craft a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan amid frustrations that 16 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the conflict has reached a stalemate.
Mattis said he is satisfied with how the administration formulated its new Afghanistan war strategy. But he refused to talk about the new policy until it was disclosed by Trump.
He said the deliberations, including talks at the Camp David presidential retreat on Friday, were done properly.
“I am very comfortable that the strategic process was sufficiently rigorous,” Mattis said, speaking aboard a military aircraft on an overnight flight from Washington to Amman, Jordan.
Months ago, Trump gave Mattis authority to set U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, but Mattis said he has not yet sent significant additional forces to the fight. He has said he would wait for Trump to set the strategic direction first.
Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday that he had made decisions at Camp David, “including on Afghanistan,” but did not say more about it.
Important day spent at Camp David with our very talented Generals and military leaders. Many decisions made, including on Afghanistan.
The expectation had been that he would agree to a modest boost in the U.S. war effort, while also addressing broader political, economic and regional issues.
Mattis said Trump had been presented with multiple options. He did not name them, but others have said one option was to pull out of Afghanistan entirely. Another, which Mattis had mentioned recently in Washington, was to hire private contractors to perform some of the U.S. military’s duties.
U.S. to double size of Afghan force
In short remarks to the force, Nicholson said a defeat in Afghanistan would erode safety in the U.S. and “embolden jihadists around the world.”
That’s why, he said, the U.S. is helping to double the size of the Afghan commando force, adding that the ceremony “marks the beginning of the end of the Taliban.”
Maj.-Gen. James Linder, the head of U.S. and NATO special operations forces in Afghanistan, said the nearly 4,000 troops requested by the Pentagon for Afghanistan includes about 460 trainers for his staff to help increase the size of the special operations forces.
He said he would be able expand training locations and insure they have advisers at all the right levels, including on the new Afghan special operations corps staff.