Where Will U.S. Troops Be Deployed In Afghanistan?

Marine Brig. Gen. Roger Turner, the former commanding general of Task Force Southwest, is shown here in Afghanistan with his Marines on April 29, 2017. (Photo by Sgt. Lucas Hopkins/ Marine Corps)

Washington Post: For U.S. troops in Afghanistan, new questions about where to be in combat

When Marine Brig. Gen. Roger Turner’s task force deployed to Afghanistan’s most violent province last spring, it came with an uncertainty: To what degree would it be necessary to deploy U.S. troops in harm’s way as the military helped the Afghan government beat back the Taliban?

Turner characterized the dispatching of about 300 U.S. troops, primarily Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Helmand province ahead of their deployment as a “high-risk mission” where combat was possible. The advisers were initially deployed to advise at the “corps level,” a description the U.S. military uses to describe U.S. service members who coordinate and plan with senior Afghan officers in operations, but don’t accompanying Afghan troops on combat operations.

In August, President Trump announced that after months of deliberation, he would not withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and in fact would modestly increase the size of the U.S. military presence and expand what those already deployed could do. That would include allowing U.S. troops to advise Afghan kandaks, a distinction that could put Americans in grave danger more frequently.

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WNU Editor: The critics of this new U.S. role in Afghanistan are not convinced .... America has done all it can in Afghanistan — more troops won’t 'win' us anything (Major Danny Sjursen, The Hill).