Should The U.S. 'Take The Gloves Off Against The Taliban'

Taliban fighters (Reuters / Mohammad Shoib) / Reuters

David Petraeus and Michael O'Hanlon, Wall Street Journal: Take the Gloves Off Against the Taliban

Incredibly, even though much U.S. blood and treasure was sacrificed in Afghanistan, we won’t bomb the militants trying to take over the country.

In any counterinsurgency campaign, foreign forces helping another country must strike a balance. They must wean local forces off their dependency on outside help as rapidly as possible. But they also must not rush the job and lose what has been gained along the way—especially when a part of their core mission is to build up the indigenous police and military forces to which they seek to pass the baton.

For 10 years U.S. leaders have understood the need for this delicate balancing act in Iraq and Afghanistan, though both the Bush and Obama administrations did, in certain cases, hand off to indigenous forces and draw down more rapidly than was advisable. We are at risk of doing that again now in Afghanistan.

The immediate issue is how we are using American and broader NATO air power. There is a great deal of it—many dozens of combat aircraft at bases from Helmand and Kandahar provinces in the south to the cities of Khost and Jalalabad in the east to the capital region of Kabul and points north. But we continue to handcuff those deploying these jets, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles. Existing U.S. and NATO policy generally allows them to strike targets on the ground only when hostile forces can be identified as al Qaeda or ISIS loyalists, when they pose an imminent threat to NATO personnel, or, reportedly, when a strategic collapse is imminent.

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WNU Editor: This commentary was written before the drone strike targeting Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor was launched .... Afghan Intelligence Confirms Reports That A U.S. Drone Killed The Afghan Taliban Leader in Pakistan. It makes one wonder if Petraeus or O'Hanlon wwere given a hint that U.S. policy against the Taliban was about to change (i.e. directly targeting the leadership). As to what is my take on their commentary .... I share Bing West's frustration .... Take the Gloves Off Against a Terrible Political and Military Strategy (Bing West, Small Wars Journal).