*ISLAMABAD:* President Donald Trump’s latest pick for national securityadviser, John Bolton, says the United States cannot walk away from the warin Afghanistan because of the larger threat from the Taliban, the IslamicState terror group and al Qaeda, according to Voice of America.
Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations who is widely knownfor his hardline views, is set to become Trump’s new national securityadviser after his predecessor, HR McMaster, resigned following reports of‘irreparable’ differences with the president and other key White Houseofficials.
Bolton told an audience in Washington in late February that Americans arefrustrated that the US is still in Afghanistan. “We didn’t start this war,we don’t want this war. But one side doesn’t get to say, ‘Okay, we’re tiredof it, I think it’s over,’ ” he said while speaking at the Daniel MorganGraduate School of National Security in Washington.
Bolton’s views on ensuring the Taliban are degraded square with Trump’sAfghan strategy announced last August. Trump committed to sustaining the USmilitary campaign for as long as necessary and empowered American fieldcommanders in Afghanistan to make tactical decisions as they deemednecessary. But the Trump administration has since faced criticism about thelack of a complementary political and diplomatic strategy to achievereconciliation in a country replete with ethnic fault lines, governmentcorruption and a resilient Taliban.
In an interview with VOA, former US Ambassador Robin Raphel praisedBolton’s recognition that the US cannot walk away from the Afghan war. Butshe noted Bolton must also recognize ‘the need to energize the politicaltrack, as has been affirmed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and GeneralNicholson, who recognise there’s no military solution to the Afghanconflict’. Nicholson is commander of US Forces Afghanistan and the ResoluteSupport Mission.
Conceding that the Taliban insurgency is gaining momentum, Bolton hasargued that a more compelling reason for the US staying the course in theAfghan war is to prevent radicals in the region from being emboldened.