Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 13 March 2018
16 years on, US military presence in Afghanistan growing

By ROBERT BURNS ing this as a U.S. failure.
AP National Security Writer When Trump announced
WASHINGTON (AP) — The in August that he was or-
U.S. is bolstering its military dering a new approach to
presence in Afghanistan, the war, he said he realized
more than 16 years after “the American people are
the war started. Is anyone weary of war without victo-
paying attention? ry.” He said his instinct was
Consider this: At a Senate to pull out, but that after
hearing this past week on consulting with aides, he
top U.S. security threats, the decided to seek “an hon-
word “Afghanistan” was orable and enduring out-
spoken exactly four times, come.” He said that meant
each during introductory committing more resources
remarks. In the ensuing two to the war, giving com-
hours of questions for intel- manders in the field more
ligence agency witnesses, authority and staying in Af-
no senator asked about Af- ghanistan for as long as it
ghanistan, suggesting little takes.
interest in a war with nearly Stephen Biddle, a profes-
15,000 U.S. troops support- sor of political science
ing combat against the Tal- and international affairs at
iban. George Washington Uni-
It’s not as if the war’s end is In this Jan. 28, 2018 photo, men carry the coffin of a relative who died in the Jan. 27 deadly versity, said Americans’
suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. The deadly explosion caused by a suicide bomber driving
in sight. an ambulance in the capital. Is Afghanistan really America’s forgotten war? Consider this: At a relative lack of interest in
Just last month the bulk of Senate hearing this week on top U.S. security threats, the word “Afghanistan” was spoken exactly the war gives Trump politi-
an Army training brigade of four times, each during introductory remarks. cal maneuver room to con-
about 800 soldiers arrived (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) duct the war as he wishes,
to improve the advising of or May. Over the winter, “done nothing to deal with stan. but that dynamic is not
Afghan forces. Since Janu- American and Afghan war- civil and political stability.” The weak central govern- necessarily a good one.
ary, attack planes and planes have focused on at- That challenge is expect- ment in Kabul and the resil- “The idea that a democ-
other aircraft have been tacking illicit drug facilities ed to come into clearer ient Taliban insurgency are racy is spending billions of
added to U.S. forces in Af- that are a source of Taliban focus with the approach not the U.S. military’s only dollars a year, killing people
ghanistan. revenue. of parliamentary elections problems there. It also fac- and sacrificing American
But it’s not clear that the One of Washington’s clos- planned for July. es what Gen. Joseph Votel, lives waging war, and the
war, which began in Oc- est watchers of the Af- The administration “not the top U.S. general over- elected representatives of
tober 2001, is going as well ghanistan conflict, Anthony only faces a deteriorat- seeing the war, calls inter- the people aren’t paying
as the U.S. had hoped sev- Cordesman of the Center ing security situation, it has ference by Russia. He told attention I think is inappro-
en months after President for Strategic and Interna- no clear political, gover- a congressional panel last priate,” Biddle said. “But to
Donald Trump announced tional Studies, wrote last nance, or economic strat- month that Moscow is seek- say it is inappropriate isn’t
a new, more aggressive month that the administra- egy to produce Afghan ing to undermine U.S. and to say it’s surprising, be-
strategy. The picture may tion has made major im- stability,” Cordesman said. NATO influence in Afghani- cause this is the way Con-
be clearer once the tradi- provements in military tac- In his view, the U.S. military stan by exaggerating the gress has been behaving
tionally most intensive fight- tics and plans for develop- has been assigned a “mis- presence of Islamic State toward this war for a long,
ing season begins in April ing Afghan forces but has sion impossible” in Afghani- fighters there and portray- long time.”q

Tillerson casts poisoning as sign of more aggressive Russia

By JOSH LEDERMAN anyone would take such ing freed in an exchange
Associated Press an action. But this is a sub- of spies in 2010. Moscow
ABOARD A U.S. GOVERN- stance that is known to us has dismissed the sugges-
MENT AIRCRAFT (AP) — U.S. and does not exist widely,” tion it was involved in his
Secretary of State Rex Til- Tillerson told reporters as he March 4 poisoning as “a
lerson cast the poisoning of flew from Nigeria to Wash- circus show.”
an ex-spy in Britain as part ington. Tillerson, who spoke Mon-
of a “certain unleashing “It is only in the hands of a day by phone with Brit-
of activity” by Russia that very, very limited number of ish Foreign Secretary Boris
the United States is strug- parties.” Johnson, said he’s grown
gling to understand. He British Prime Minister The- “extremely concerned”
warned that the poisoning resa May said that Novi- about Russia, noting that
would “certainly trigger a chock, the nerve agent he spent most of the first
response.” used against ex-spy Sergei year of the Trump adminis-
Tillerson, echoing the Brit- Skripal and his daughter, tration trying to solve prob-
ish government’s finger- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson boards his plane to depart was developed by the So- lems and narrow differenc-
pointing toward Moscow, at the end of a five-country swing through Africa from Abuja, viet Union near the end of es with the Kremlin. He said
said he didn’t yet know Nigeria, Monday, March 12, 2018. the Cold War. after a year of trying, “we
whether Russia’s govern- (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP) Skripal, 66, was a Russian didn’t get very far.”
ment knew of the attack sia.” He said it was “almost substance in a public place military intelligence officer “Instead what we’ve seen
with a military-grade nerve beyond comprehension” in a foreign country where before flipping to the British is a pivot on their part to be
agent, but that one way or why a state actor would others could be exposed. side in the 1990s, going to more aggressive,” Tillerson
another, “it came from Rus- deploy such a dangerous “I cannot understand why jail in Russia in 2006 and be- said. q