Obama’s Dilemma on Troop Surge in Afghanistan Now Vexes Trump
The dispute pits two generals who had formative experiences in Afghanistan — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster — against political aides, led by the chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, who fear
that sending in more troops would be a slippery slope toward nation-building.
Both Mr. Mattis and General McMaster are steeped in counterinsurgency doctrine — the strategy
that helped lead Mr. Obama to order a deployment of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in 2009.
But Mr. Nagl said both had reason to be more cautious this time: Mr. Mattis had scars from the heavy losses borne by the Marines there, while General McMaster’s exposure to rampant corruption would rob him of any illusions
that a few thousand new troops could turn around Afghanistan.
As Mr. Trump faces his most consequential decision yet as commander in chief — whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, where a truck bombing on Wednesday offered a brutal reminder
that the 16-year-old war is far from over — his administration is divided along familiar fault lines.
John A. Nagl said that Running an anticorruption task force in Afghanistan makes being Donald Trump’s national security adviser look easy,
Douglas said that Trump has made it harder, not easier, to follow the U.S. lead,
For both General McMaster and Mr. Mattis, a retired four-star Marine Corps general, Afghanistan was a profound experience — but in different ways.