The senators’ message to the officer tapped to lead the fight in Afghanistan on Thursday was clear: just tell us how many troops you need, and we’ll make it happen.
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that Lt. Gen. John Nicholson would be nominated to take over as leader of U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan when Gen. John Campbell steps down. Less than a day later, Nicholson appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
At the hearing, Nicholson fielded questions about the administration’s planned drawdown by early 2017 and the deteriorating security situation on the ground. He promised lawmakers an honest assessment of troop needs within 90 days of taking over in his new role.
About 10,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, a number expected to remain steady through most of 2016. Late this year, that number is scheduled to draw down to 5,500.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed serious issues with a plan based on an arbitrary date set by the administration even as military officials say the situation in Afghanistan in getting less safe.
Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., stressed that Nicholson should tell lawmakers how many troops he needs based on conditions on the battlefield, regardless of the numbers put forward by the administration.
“We desperately need you to let us know what you really need,” Donnelly said. “If it’s 10,000 that’s needed to be effective, then tell us it’s 10. If it’s five, tell us it’s five, but I can’t think of a worse scenario than to need 10 and to have five and to try to in effect almost be like somebody who’s trying to paint four walls of a room at the same time with one paintbrush.
“If it’s 12 or 13 or 14, just let us know because you don’t control the day you get there, you don’t control exactly how many you need,” Donnelly continued, talking about thousands of troops needed. “They may want to shoe you into a five number, but if the number’s 14, the number’s 14. We can’t make a peach an orange. We really need to hear unvarnished exactly what the situation is.”
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., described problems the Afghan forces have faced over the past year, including a resurgence of the Taliban and the rise of Islamic State in the Khorasan peninsula. The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said he sees the security situation in Afghanistan as “deteriorating rather than improving.”
“I agree with your assessment,” Nicholson said.
The general said Afghan forces, while he praised their bravery and will to fight, were not able to make planned advances because the Taliban attacked more aggressively than officials had expected.
Afghans still rely on the U.S. for intelligence, air support and assistance with providing medical aide to troops. The U.S. still has “years to go” in developing the capability among Afghan forces for some of these missions, he said.
McCain said he hoped to get Nicholson’s nomination to the Senate floor for a vote by “early next week.”
Nicholson serves as the commander of allied land command at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He’s spent much of his career either in Afghanistan or supporting the war from the U.S. or Europe, previously serving as the deputy commanding general for operations of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and the deputy chief of staff for operations of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
“He knows what it means to lead a responsive and nimble force, and how to build the capacity of our partners to respond to immediate and long term threats and remain adaptable to confront evolving challenges. And he understands the importance and complexity of our mission in Afghanistan,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement this week.
