The U.S. is preparing to expand its military effort against a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported.
The new strategy would give the military broader authority to use airstrikes against Taliban militants and authorize the Pentagon to set troop numbers in Afghanistan. Obama-era restrictions that limited the mobility of U.S. military advisers on the battlefield would also be lifted.
"The review is an opportunity to send a message that, yes, the U.S. is going to send more troops, but it's not to achieve a forever military victory – rather, it's to try to bring about a negotiated end to this conflict," Andrew Wilder, an Afghanistan expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace, told the Post.
Afghanistan has asked the U.S. for help in fighting the Taliban and ISIS because of military shortfalls, according to Military.com. Some 8,400 U.S. troops currently deployed in Afghanistan are performing counterterrorism operations against insurgents and training members of the Afghan army as the war is in its 16th year.
The proposal, which will call for an increase of 3,000 U.S. troops, faces resistance and members opposed inside the White House have referred to it as "McMaster’s War." H.R. McMaster is the president's national security adviser.
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