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White House Completes Afghanistan Review – Strategy to be Unveiled Tonight

<p>It has been more than 15 years since the United States invaded Afghanistan&comma; but the fighting is far from over&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than 10&comma;000 US troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan&comma; and US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis&comma; who has complete authority over troop levels&comma; has suggested sending up to 4&comma;000 more&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This week&comma; Mattis announced that Trump had made a decision on the US strategy in Afghanistan&period; &nbsp&semi;The results of that assessment and an&nbsp&semi;ongoing&nbsp&semi;strategy will be revealed tonight&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;I am very comfortable that the strategic process was sufficiently rigorous and did not go in with a pre-set position&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Mattis on Sunday&period; &ldquo&semi;The president has made a decision&period; As he said&comma; he wants to be the one to announce it to the American people&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Trump met with national security aides on Friday to review several options for Afghanistan&period; According to officials&comma; these options ranged from a modest increase in troops to a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to an anonymous official&comma; Trump&rsquo&semi;s top national security aides are pushing to send between 3&comma;000 and 5&comma;000 additional troops&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;The troop strength question is sort of cart before the horse&comma;&rdquo&semi; said Senator Tim Kaine &lpar;D-VA&rpar;&period; &ldquo&semi;The real question is what is our strategy&quest; And then when you lay out the strategy&comma; the troop strength question can kind of answer itself&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Afghanistan&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Afghanistan is the world&rsquo&semi;s top producer of heroin and a breeding ground for terrorists&period; According to recent estimates&comma; government forces control less than 60&percnt; of the country&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There are currently more than 10&comma;000 men and women helping the Afghanistan government fight back against the Taliban insurgency&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Amid Washington&&num;8217&semi;s review of Afghanistan policy comes renewed insistence that Afghanistan wants us there to help&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Colonel Abdul Mobin&comma; who leads an Afghan mechanized battalion in the 111th Division&comma; says any reduction in US military presence would lead to &ldquo&semi;total failure&period;&rdquo&semi; Mobin says he would like to see 10&comma;000 additional US troops in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> Yet another situation Obama left to fester&period; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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