US President Donald Trump’s decision to continue military operations in Afghanistan, with a probably modest increase in US troops, is an incremental shift in strategy that may help hold the line against a resurgent Taliban but isn’t likely to change the course of the United States’ longest war, The Washington Post reported.

In a televised address to the nation Monday, Trump said that his “original instinct was to pull out” but that the “consequences of a rapid exit are predictable and unacceptable.”

He said he would “not talk about numbers of troops” he would sanction but promised that “in the end, we will win.” Senior military leaders have asked for several thousand more troops to advise Afghan forces in their fight against the Taliban and intensify the waves of US airstrikes aimed at the militant group. Trump also said the new strategy would involve pressuring Pakistan, long accused of harboring terrorists, to support US goals.

Trump’s decision is a middle path that does not hew to either of the main foreign policy themes he articulated as a candidate: to stay out of expensive overseas quagmires, and to decisively win any conflict worth entering.

It followed months of deliberations within the new administration, which swung from a bold stroke to yank US forces after nearly 16 years of war to options that would sprinkle more US trainers and Special Operations troops around the vast country in hopes of forcing the Taliban to the table and preventing the formation of another terrorist haven.

By tweaking a course set by President Barack Obama, Trump suggests that he, like Obama and President George W. Bush before him, is facing the bleak reality of Afghanistan: There is no fast or politically palatable way to win, but losing quickly isn’t an acceptable option, either.

Military strategists, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have long argued that there is no military solution in Afghanistan and that the goal should be to convince the Taliban that they have more to gain from talking than fighting.

Source: MENA