Warfare On What To Do With Afghanistan Is Breaking Out In The White House

Soldiers and airmen from Provincial Reconstruction Team Zabul, 2010. Flickr/U.S. Army

Jacob Heilbrunn, National Interest: Why Bannon Is Right about Afghanistan

Warfare over Afghanistan is breaking out in the Trump White House.

Steve Bannon is going to war. His target is national security adviser H. R. McMaster who was lanced yesterday in a piece by Bloomberg’s Eli Lake. Lake explained that Trump is disgruntled with McMaster, even yelling at him for undermining him. He further explained that the Bannon faction in the White House believes that McMaster is “trying to the trick the president into the kind of nation building that he campaigned against.” In short, Bannon is targeting McMaster because he thinks that he is counseling folly in wanting to ramp up the American presence in Afghanistan to battle the Taliban. Meanwhile, the White House says that all is peachy keen between McMaster and Trump.

Setting aside the battle for turf that is taking place—one that seems to be a constant in the Trump White House—the question remains: Is Bannon right? Or do the hawks have the solution?

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Update: White House leakers have new target: H. R. McMaster (The Hill)

WNU Editor: Steve Bannon is President Trump's political strategist .... not his national security strategist. Even if the reports on him voicing opposition to any U.S. surge on Afghanistan are true, it is going to be drown out by the political/military establishment who appear to be "gung-ho" for another go at that war. My prediction .... a new U.S. surge will happen, and a revision on the rules of engagement are going to be issued. Expect the war in Afghanistan to really heat up this summer.