Will The War In Afghanistan Be Decided In 2018?

Reinforcement troops from the Afghan army prepared to travel to Kandahar.
Ahmad Masood/Reuters

Paul D. Shinkman, US News and World Report: Victory or Failure in Afghanistan: 2018 Will Be the Deciding Year

The Trump administration says it has everything it needs to succeed in Afghanistan, but it also has a limited time to prove that it’s right.

BRUSSELS – The war in Afghanistan will be decided in 2018, when a new military-heavy U.S. administration in Washington will prove whether its plan will be enough to overcome entrenched battlefield obstacles and convince skeptics that it is capable of putting an end to America's longest conflict.

Armed with a new strategy and renewed support from old allies, the Trump administration now believes it has everything it needs to win the war in Afghanistan. Top military advisers all the way up to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis say they can accomplish what two previous administrations and multiple troop surges could not: the defeat of the Taliban by Western-backed local forces, a negotiated peace and the establishment of a popularly supported government in Kabul capable of keeping the country from once again becoming a haven to any terrorist group.

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WNU Editor: Apparently this is the goal ....

.... Nicholson told reporters in the aftermath of these strikes that his goal for the next two years is to get 80 percent of the country back under control of the central government and no more than 10 percent of the country contested by Taliban control.

"Why two years? Because this is when we're doubling the size of the Afghan commandos. We're continuing to increase the size of their air force. Of course, they'll have U.S. combat enablers provided through the U.S. authorities. So this will help their offensive operations," he said.

There is a heavy reliance on Afghanistan special forces to accomplish this. But as I have said more than once .... I am not optimistic.