美国有线新闻 CNN 特朗普考虑增兵阿富汗 打击塔利班和ISIS

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First story, are thousands of additional U.S. troops headed to the southern Asian country of Afghanistan. That's something that U.S. national security advisers¹ may be requesting from President Donald Trump².

The conflict in Afghanistan is America's longest war. It began under former President George W. Bush in 2001. That's when the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan at that time, refused to turn over the al Qaeda terrorists who were responsible for the September 11th attacks on the United States. Conflict raged in the years that followed with a coalition³ lead by the U.S. fighting Taliban and al Qaeda forces.

Former President Barack Obama promised to end the war there. But instead, he left office earlier this year with more than 8,000 U.S. troops still serving in Afghanistan.

And though Donald Trump, when he was a candidate, promised to put an end to what he called nation-building, President Trump may be expanding the American footprint in Afghanistan. Just like in 2001, the Taliban still posed a challenge in the country.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: President Trump is about to decide on a Pentagon plan for beefing the U.S. fight against the Taliban and ISIS in Afghanistan.

The first option, sending as many as 5,000 additional U.S. troops to bolster⁴ the 8,400 already there. The goal is to pressure the Taliban to the negotiating table.

Candidate Trump initially⁵ opposed sending more troops but later acknowledged the need for a military presence.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Do I love anything about it? No. I like — I think it's important that we, number one, keep a presence there and ideally, you know, a presence of pretty much what they're talking about, 5,000 soldiers.

STARR: But are more troops the only answer from the president?

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: One of the things he's asked his national security team to do is to actually think the — rethink the strategy of how do we actually — how do we win? How do we eliminate the threat?

CHARLES KUPCHAN, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: He has to square the circle between no more nation-building, reducing America's footprint abroad and his pledge to go after bad guys.

STARR: Defense⁶ Secretary James Mattis insists progress is being made.

JAMES MATTIS, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: In Afghanistan, we're up against a determined⁷ enemy. As I said, ISIS has been thrown back there, al Qaeda had been unable to mount attacks out of Afghanistan.

STARR: After U.S. troop levels rose to 100,000 in mid-2010, President Obama set a plan to reduce the U.S. effort. With the Taliban now back on the rise, commanders want Trump to also approve authority to conduct more airstrikes and ground operations.

KUPCHAN: What we need to watch for and be careful about is if 10,000 becomes 20,000, 20,000 becomes 30,000. We've been there since 2001.

That's 15-plus years, not a lot to show for it.

STARR: President Trump already has given more authority to commanders overseeing operations in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Somalia. In Afghanistan, the decision to launch a MOAB bomb for the first time was made by the general on the ground. But it is U.S. Special Operations Forces that have suffered casualties in repeated counterterrorism operations. A total of 12 killed in combat in the last year.

A warning from the top commander.

GEN. RAYMOND THOMAS, CMDR, U.S. SPECIAL OPS COMMAND: We're not a panacea⁸. We are not the ultimate solution for every problem and you will not hear that coming from us.