US Marines in Afghanistan to fight, not advise: Commentator
The Pentagon will deploy a new task force of approximately 300 US Marines to Afghanistan’s restive Helmand Province. The forces will be deployed this spring to advise the Afghan army and police, senior Marine officers say.
A political commentator believes these troops will not simply play an "advisory role", but are going to fight when necessary.
“What we are seeing effectively, this is the new US policy in action. That is the US government enabling governments in regional countries, enabling them with arms and other support to fight what the US considers their own battles,” Barry Grossman told Press TV in an interview on Saturday.
He went on to say the primary task of US Marines is to “train, equip, arm and supervise” local forces so that they can carry out the combat missions without the US having to take responsibility when those operations go wrong and civilians get killed.
The commentator further argued the problem is that the Afghan government is largely beholding to the US rather than to its own constituency.
He also noted from a legal point of view, the United States is ‘perfectly entitled’ to provide more troops if requested by the Afghan government.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Grossman stated after the drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan, they were forbidden from engaging the Taliban.
However, he said, the rules have “quietly changed” and now US forces are entitled to engage Taliban troops when either they are in harm’s way or when Afghan forces are under attack.
US Marines were pulled out of Helmand, a long-time Taliban stronghold, in October 2014 as part of President Barack Obama’s planned drawdown of US military presence in Afghanistan.
Despite the presence of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan, insecurity remains rampant in the war-hit country.
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