(by Pasquale Preziosa) There is no day that there is no negative news from Afghanistan. The US continues to talk about how to bring the victory back to that country and President Trump spoke at the beginning of the mandate to raise the military level of additional 6000 units, beyond the 9000 indicated by Obama, with fewer restrictions on military operations purpose of bringing home victory. The military was demanding more forces, but the political party set the limits.
Gen. Pasquale Preziosa, former Chief of Staff of the Air Force
It is not clear to date if the Pentagon has a plan, with these minimal human resources, to end the Afghan confrontation with a victory or if they want to retreat after reaching a minimum goal after seventeen years of war.
At the same time, the Taliban continue their advance throughout Afghanistan, the city of Ghazni was lost by the Afghans and then reconquered with very high losses and they are reluctant to accept truces or sit down at the negotiating table.
There is an indispensable point for the US: Afghanistan can not be the basis in the future where to plan further attacks on the US.
After 17 years of war, the "Global War On Terrorism", started with the invasion of Afghanistan, did not have the desired effects; al Qaeda is still healthy and the place of Osama bin Laden was taken by his son Hamza who married the daughter of Atta, one of the terrorists of the twin towers and the Isis, today, consists of at least 30.000 belonging, despite losses suffered in Syria and Iraq, willing to martyrdom all over the world.
The two organizations now think to unite to strengthen the two movements.
The American strategy to beat terrorism must be rethought: you cannot beat an opponent who operates in the so-called "hybrid" field with tools designed to make defense, there are no holistic or COMPREHENSIVE approaches that can be effective, the results achieved I am the testimony. The hybrid must be fought with counter-terrorism. Terrorism, which is invisible, according to classic contrast strategies needs: intelligence, territorial control, support of the population. In the era of globalization it is necessary to add control of the network and counter information. In Afghanistan, the control of the territory and the support of the population was minimal, the result was not, consequently, achieved. Nor could the additional 6000 soldiers represent the turning point. It is time to change pace before it is too late. During the 17 years of war, the Afghans and the Taliban have remained constant and permanent actors and spectators of the events on the ground. The coalition forces, which fought in that territory instead, alternated every six months, annually, perhaps every two years. Few individuals have reached two / three years of total presence, spread over the 17 years. The discontinuity of the presence of the subjects, in the hypothesis that they have had contact with the population, has prevented the "governance" of the assigned territory. The regular forces, through all possible adaptations have done the maximum allowed, now it is necessary to close the game.