Top U.S. Commander: American Troops Need to Stay in Afghanistan - Foreign Policy

The U.S. Army general leading the 14,000-strong NATO force in Afghanistan made a plea on Tuesday to leave American forces in Afghanistan longer to train the faltering Afghan security forces, a move that would require President Barack Obama to scrap his December 2016 timeline for withdrawing the last U.S. troops from the country.

Afghans still “cannot handle the fight alone” without American close air support and a special operations counterterrorism force to hit Taliban leadership, Gen. John Campbell told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It will take time for them to build their human capital” in logistics and managing their forces in the field, meaning Afghan forces will need international assistance “well beyond this year.”

The testimony comes just days after a U.S. airstrike in the city of Kunduz hit a charity hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, killing 22 and injuring another 37 civilians. The attack has sparked international outrage, particularly as the American explanation for the tragedy has continued to change. Initial reports said U.S. forces were under fire at the location, but that story changed on Monday, when Campbell said Afghan forces had requested the strike by an AC-130 gunship after reporting that they had come under Taliban fire.

Just before Campbell’s testimony, Dr. Joanne Liu, president of the aid group, released a statement charging the hospital was “deliberately bombed” and that the group is “working on the presumption of a war crime.” The group has maintained that it had provided the GPS coordinates of the hospital to coalition and Afghan officials, as recently as Sept. 29.

On Capitol Hill Tuesday, Campbell took more responsibility, telling the panel, “To be clear, the decision to provide [airstrikes] was a U.S. decision, made within the U.S. chain of command. The hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.” - Read More at Foreign Policy
Top US Commander: American Troops Need to Stay in …

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