July 9 (UPI) — Mike Pompeo made his first discuss with to Afghanistan as secretary of state Monday, offering optimism about the Trump administration’s technique to the 17-yr conflict.
Pompeo arrived unannounced to meet with President Ashraf Ghani over potential peace talks among the Afghan executive and the Taliban. After assessing the United States’ position within the battle there, Pompeo mentioned he believes President Donald Trump’s strategy — a prerequisites-based method over a timeline-primarily based one — has paid off.
“the strategy sent a transparent message to the Taliban, they can’t wait us out,” Pompeo said. “a lot of the Taliban now see that they cannot win on the flooring militarily, that has the whole lot to do with President Trump’s technique.”
A report by means of the Different Inspector Normal for Afghanistan Reconstruction, an independent watchdog, in Would Possibly discovered that the U.S. executive’s effort to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan after toppling the ruling Taliban has largely been unsuccessful.
The report stated President Barack Obama’s choice to send 50,000 more U.S. troops to transparent probably the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan of insurgents in 2009 and 2010 contributed to the overall failure.
The so-known as surge was once meant to create a cling at the space that will discourage the Taliban from returning, but was limited to 18 months. an absence of security left the locals unconvinced they might have the opportunity to offer protection to themselves from insurgents in the event that they again and the temporary period of time didn’t give insurgents enough time to take over, SIGAR said.
Pompeo stated there now’s hope for development — with an increase in airstrikes and the deployment of an extra THREE,000 U.S. troops.
“lots of the Taliban now see that they cannot win on the flooring militarily. That’s … deeply hooked up to President Trump’s strategy,” he said.
In June, Ghani ended an 18-day cease-hearth with the Taliban, appealing to the crowd to enroll in a peace process going forward. The president declared the truce 98 percent successful and said it proved the Taliban fighters and civilians need peace.
Pompeo’s shuttle comes two days after an insider assault in Afghanistan killed one U.S. service member and injured others. The U.S. personnel have been fascinated by coaching and advising the Afghan military.
