Analysis: Trump and Pentagon search for way to end America's longest war

A Pentagon plan to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan aims to halt advances by Taliban insurgents in the short term, but the broader goal is to find a political path to end America’s longest war.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who was given a free hand by President Trump on Tuesday to send thousands of more troops to Afghanistan if deemed necessary, said the Pentagon is formulating a new approach to the war, now in its 16th year. He said Wednesday that a new strategy would consider whether to bring “more diplomatic and economic pressures on surrounding nations” to help end the conflict.

One of the key nations is neighboring Pakistan, where the radical Taliban movement began and where many of its leaders have sanctuary.

A "revised Afghanistan strategy" will be presented to Trump within weeks, said Mattis, who has not yet determined how many more troops to add to the 8,400 U.S. forces currently in Afghanistan, in addition to several thousand coalition troops.

Mattis' flexibility in deciding how many more troops to send to the war zone reflects Trump's preference to delegate such matters to military commanders. He provided the Pentagon with similar authority to deploy troops to Iraq and Syria.

The immediate concern in Afghanistan is halting Taliban progress as a new fighting season gets underway. The Taliban usually waits for snows to melt and roads to become passable in the mountainous terrain before stepping up attacks.

The overview of the war comes at a time when the Pentagon has called the fighting a stalemate between the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the Taliban, which was ousted from power in 2001 for harboring the al-Qaeda terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks.

“We are not winning in Afghanistan right now,” Mattis told Congress this week.

Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander in Afghanistan, said a few thousand more U.S. troops would be required to turn the tide but would not alter the current military approach, which is to support Afghan forces. The new troops would still serve as advisers, but they could assist more Afghan units.

Mattis indicated he also is weighing additional air support, a critical factor in a country like Afghanistan, where fighting often happens in remote areas. The ability to move troops and bomb Taliban fighters in far reaches of the country are important to prevent the militants from developing new strongholds.

“They have suffered horrible loses and they keep fighting,” Mattis said of Afghan security forces, which number more than 300,000 police and soldiers. “They’re not fighting as well as they could if we gave them the kind of air support, more intel support, that we could give them.”

The new authority provided by Trump will give "our troops greater latitude to provide air power and other vital support" for Afghan forces, Mattis said in a statement.

President Barack Obama had cut off all air support except in the most extreme situations or to defend American troops after 2013, when the coalition formally turned over security responsibility to Afghanistan. He changed course last year and agreed to provide commanders with more authority to use airstrikes to support Afghan security forces in key battles.

Obama had ordered a rapid drawdown of U.S. troops from a peak of 100,000 in 2010, and the Taliban have been expanding control over the past couple years.

The Taliban, which represents an extreme version of Islam, also is benefiting from a lack of popular support for the central government, which is widely viewed as inept, corrupt and a puppet of the United States.

Recent Taliban gains are a dangerous sign, said Seth Jones, an analyst at RAND Corp. “If the Taliban can hold rural areas, it provides them with a sanctuary and eventually they can move on to urban areas,” he said.

The Trump administration is trying to develop a broader strategy for the region. Insurgencies cannot be defeated on the battlefield alone, Jones said.

In particular, Pakistan's cooperation is needed to find a broader political solution. Pakistan provides sanctuary for Taliban leaders and would be a key force in persuading them to negotiate with the Afghan government. The Taliban leaders "are still operating their command and control structure from across the  border,” Jones said.

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