The top commander of U.S. air operations in the Middle East said that if the U.S. were to step up its air attacks over Afghanistan, he has the planes in theater to do it.
“It’s a task that we can handle with the forces that we have on hand,” Lt. Gen. Charles Brown said Thursday in a Pentagon teleconference from his headquarters in Qatar. But before that can happen, President Obama would need to order a change in the rules of engagement.
Unlike in Iraq and Syria, where the U.S.-led coalition is enabling local fighters with daily airstrikes in support their offensive operations against Islamic State positions, in Afghanistan, U.S. commanders are limited to conducting airstrikes that fall into three narrow categories: in self-defense, to attack the Islamic State or al Qaeda, or to prevent Afghan forces from being overrun.
The role of providing air cover for offensive operations by U.S.-trained Afghan forces ceased when the U.S. declared an official end to the NATO combat mission at the end of 2014.
The recent targeting of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was justified by the Pentagon as a defensive strike, because Mansour was deemed an imminent threat to U.S. and NATO forces.
The Pentagon said the death of Mansour removed “an obstacle to peace,” but his replacement Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, has reportedly vowed not to take part in peace talks with the Afghan government and promised more violence.
And increasingly, members of Congress and military experts are calling for the president to lift the ban on targeting the Taliban, or as former U.S. Central Command chief and CIA Director David Petraeus recently put it, “take the gloves off.”
“I hope this strike against the Taliban’s top leader will lead the administration to reconsider its policy of prohibiting U.S. forces from targeting the Taliban,” said Sen. John McCain in a statement issued hours after the announcement of the drone strike against Mansour.
Brown, the three-star general in charge of U.S. Air Force Central Command, stressed that while he has the capability to expand the scope of airstrikes, it’s not his call.
His job, he said, is to support Army Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson, took command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in March. “We’re just the provider of the air power and support,” Brown said.
The Pentagon said this week that Nicholson will submit recommendations to President Obama as soon as next week about whether to expand the air war in Afghanistan, as well as whether to further delay a planned drawdown of U.S. troops.
Brown said he has plenty of airpower at his disposal, although he said if there were a major expansion of the air campaign in Afghanistan, he might have to re-evaluate. “If there’s a dramatic change, then we’d have to go back and reassess whether or not our capability and capacity there in Afghanistan, does it work?” Brown said.
