“What’s the point of Donald Trump’s Afghan Surge?” That was the question posed by Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University and an elite member of the realist school of foreign policy, in his latest column in Foreign Policy magazine. The question, of course, is in reference to the Trump administration’s current discussions on United States forces in Afghanistan, a discussion Washington foreign policy insiders expect will include an increase of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 troops.
It’s no secret the Afghan national security forces have been struggling to resist Taliban offensives over the past two fighting seasons, notwithstanding the $71 billion of U.S. taxpayer money already spent to build up a semi-professional Afghan army and police force. Afghan military casualties have skyrocketed ever since U.S. and NATO soldiers handed over security responsibility and combat duty in 2014, and the desertions, attrition, retirements, and ghost-soldiers have been constant problems within Afghanistan’s security forces.
