UPDATE: WASHINGTON (AP) - Reversing his past calls for a speedy exit, President Donald Trump recommitted the United States to the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan Monday night, declaring U.S. troops must "fight to win." He pointedly declined to disclose how many more troops will be dispatched to wage America's longest war.
In a prime-time address to unveil his new Afghanistan strategy, Trump said the U.S. would shift away from a "time-based" approach, instead linking its assistance to results and to cooperation from the beleaguered Afghan government, Pakistan and others. He insisted it would be a "regional" strategy that addressed the roles played by other South Asian nations - especially Pakistan's harboring of elements of the Taliban.
"America will work with the Afghan government as long as we see determination and progress," Trump said. "However, our commitment is not unlimited, and our support is not a blank check."
Still, Trump offered few details about how progress would be measured. Nor did he explain how his approach would differ substantively from what two presidents before him tried unsuccessfully over the past 16 years.
Although Trump insisted he would "not talk about numbers of troops" or telegraph military moves in advance, he hinted that he'd embraced the Pentagon's proposal to boost troop numbers by nearly 4,000, augmenting the roughly 8,400 Americans there now.
Before becoming a candidate, Trump had ardently argued for a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling the war a massive waste of U.S. "blood and treasure" and declaring on Twitter, "Let's get out!" Seven months into his presidency, he said Monday night that though his "original instinct was to pull out," he'd since determined that approach could create a vacuum that terrorists including al-Qaida and the Islamic State would "instantly fill."
"We will ask our NATO allies and global partners to support our new strategy, with additional troop and funding increases in line with our own. We are confident they will," Trump said in comments echoed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Earlier this year, Trump announced he was entrusting Mattis and the military with the decision about how many troops would be needed. In talking points sent Monday to congressional Republicans and supportive groups, the White House affirmed that the troop numbers were up to Mattis and added that the administration wasn't seeking more money from Congress for the strategy in the current fiscal year, which concludes at the end of next month.
While Trump stressed his strategy was about more than just the military, he was vague on other "instruments of American power" he said would be deployed in full force to lead Afghanistan toward peace, such as economic development or new engagement with Pakistan and India. Absent military specifics, it was difficult to assess how his plan might dissolve the stalemate between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
On one point - the definition of victory - Trump was unequivocal. He said American troops would "fight to win" by attacking enemies, "crushing" al-Qaida, preventing terror attacks against Americans and "obliterating" the Islamic State group, whose affiliate has gained a foothold in Afghanistan as the U.S. squeezes the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
Trump's definition of a win notably did not include defeating the Taliban, the group whose harboring of al-Qaida led the U.S. to war in Afghanistan in the days after the 9/11 attacks. Like President Barack Obama before him, Trump conceded that any solution that brings peace to Afghanistan may well involve the Taliban's participation.
"Someday, after an effective military effort, perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan," Trump said. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a statement after the speech, said the U.S. was ready to support peace talks with the Taliban "without preconditions."
Talk of future Taliban reconciliation was one of several echoes of Obama woven into Trump's plan. Like Trump, Obama insisted near the start of his presidency that the "days of providing a blank check are over," urged a regional approach and said U.S. assistance would be based on performance.
Still, Trump was intent on differentiating his approach from his predecessors - at least in rhetoric. He emphasized there would be no timelines, no hamstringing of the military and no divorcing of Afghanistan from the region's broader problems.
One step being considered to further squeeze Pakistan is to cut foreign aid programs unless Islamabad clamps down on the Taliban and an associated group known as the Haqqani network, senior administration officials told reporters ahead of Trump's speech. Using civilian and military aid as a pressure lever with the Pakistanis has been tried for years.
Trump's speech concluded a months-long internal debate within his administration over whether to pull back from the Afghanistan conflict, as he and a few advisers were inclined to do, or to embroil the U.S. further in a war that has eluded American solutions for the past 16 years. Several times, officials predicted he was nearing a decision to adopt his commanders' recommendations, only to see the final judgment delayed.
And while Trump has pledged to put "America First," keeping U.S. interests above any others, his national security advisers have warned that the Afghan forces are still far too weak to succeed without help. Even now, Afghan's government controls just half the country.
In Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid dismissed Trump's speech as "old" and his policy as "unclear." But the plan was cheered by Afghanistan's government. Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib, the Afghan envoy to Washington, called it a "10 out of 10."
"We heard exactly what we needed to," Mohib said in a phone interview. "The focus on the numbers has taken away the real focus on what should have been: what conditions are required and what kind of support is necessary."
Among U.S. elected officials, the reception was equally mixed, reflecting the deep divisions among Americans about whether to lean into the conflict or pull back.
John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman who'd criticized Trump for delays in presenting a plan, said the president was "now moving us well beyond the prior administration's failed strategy of merely postponing defeat." House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the speech was "low on details but raises serious questions."
"Tonight, the president said he knew what he was getting into and had a plan to go forward. Clearly, he did not," said Pelosi, D-Calif.
At its peak, the U.S. had roughly 100,000 in Afghanistan, under the Obama administration in 2010-2011. The residual forces have been focused on advising and training Afghan forces and on counterterror operations - missions that aren't expected to dramatically change under Trump's plan.
"I share the America people's frustration," Trump said. But he insisted, "In the end, we will win."
___
ORIGINAL STORY: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump will unveil his updated Afghanistan policy Monday night in a rare, prime-time address to a nation that broadly shares his pessimism about American involvement in the 16-year conflict. Although he may send a few thousand more troops, there are no signs of a major shift in strategy.
Trump's announcement caps months of debate that illustrated a basic problem in Trump's Afghanistan decision: As a candidate he criticized the war and said the U.S. should quickly pull out, but he also campaigned on a vow to start winning wars. Exiting now, with the Taliban resurgent, would be impossible to sell as victory.
"I think there's a relative certainty that the Afghan government would eventually fall," says Mark Jacobson, an Army veteran and NATO's former deputy representative in Kabul.
And while Trump has pledged to put "America First," his national security advisers have warned that the Afghan forces are still far too weak to succeed without help. That is especially important as the Taliban advance and a squeezed Islamic State group looks for new havens beyond Syria and Iraq.
Even now, Afghan's government controls just half the country.
Wary that the president is prone to last-minute decisions, officials at the White House, Pentagon and State Department remained tight-lipped about the plan ahead of Trump's 9 p.m. EDT televised address from Army's Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.
But early statements from advisers and military officials suggested Trump had lined up behind a plan the Pentagon put forward earlier this year, involving sending close to 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to boost the roughly 8,400 there now. At its peak, the U.S. had roughly 100,000 forces there, under the Obama administration in 2010-2011.
The Pentagon does not claim the troop increase will end the conflict, but military officials maintain it could help stabilize the Afghan government and break a stalemate with the Taliban.
Ahead of the speech, top officials emphasized Trump was pursuing a "regional" approach to stabilize South Asia, where neighboring Pakistan is accused of tolerating the Taliban, and nuclear-armed India and Pakistan are seldom far from conflict. Tillerson spoke Monday with the Pakistani prime minister and Indian and Afghan foreign ministers to discuss "a new, integrated regional strategy," the State Department said.
Trump's televised speech comes as the president has suffered one of his most difficult stretches to date - marked by controversies over white supremacy, the Confederacy and his former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who was pushed out last week.
Bannon had advocated a proposal to gradually swap out U.S. troops and use private contractors instead to fight in Afghanistan. The military, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and others did not support that proposal, officials say. Those officials weren't authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly and requested anonymity.
With no perfect options, Trump is likely to largely keep the mission - and any new troops - focused on training and advising Afghan forces, who are still unable to defeat the Taliban insurgency despite 16 years of U.S. help. In some areas Afghan forces are losing ground to the group the U.S. attacked after the 9/11 attacks for harboring al-Qaida.
While the U.S. keeps working to help the Afghan army make headway against the Taliban and convince them to talk peace, a counterterrorism operation is also expected to continue against the Taliban and an affiliate of IS that has gained a foothold and battled both the Taliban and U.S. forces. Last week, an American soldier died fighting IS militants in eastern Afghanistan.
The Pakistan piece presents another challenge. It's widely accepted that Afghanistan's Taliban leaders are living in Pakistan and that Pakistani hospitals treat the group's wounded.
Trump is expected to press Pakistan to shut down Taliban sanctuaries using a mix of diplomatic and economic incentives, along with threats of consequences if Islamabad doesn't cooperate. The carrot-and-stick approach has been tried before, with the U.S. withholding Coalition Support Funds.
Of key concern to Washington is the Haqqani network, blamed for some of the most devastating attacks in Afghanistan. Allied with the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network also has deep ties to Pakistan's powerful ISI intelligence agency.
A fraught period of wrangling over a new U.S. strategy ran longer than Trump initially envisioned. Several times over the past months, officials had predicted Trump was nearing a decision to go along with his commanders' recommendations, only to see the final decision delayed.
The Pentagon has argued the U.S. must stay engaged to ensure terrorists can't again use the territory to threaten the America. Afghan military commanders have agreed, making clear they want and expect continued U.S. military help.
"I assure you we are with you in this fight," Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said Sunday at Camp Morehead, where Afghan commandoes are trained southeast of Kabul. "We are with you and we will stay with you."
After reviewing war options Friday with his national security team at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, Trump tweeted Saturday that he'd reached a decision.
The setting for his speech, Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, is a short drive from the White House across the Potomac River and near the Pentagon. The base sits alongside Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for many Americans who have died in the war.