GOP rep wants Trump to loosen rules for US troops fighting Taliban

As the Taliban gains strength in Afghanistan, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), a retired Army colonel, is planning to urge President-elect Donald Trump to loosen restrictions on U.S. troops fighting against the insurgent group.  

Currently U.S. troops are not authorized to target the Taliban unless it falls into one of three cases: Self-defense; to prevent a “strategic defeat” of the U.S.-trained Afghan forces; or to help them achieve a “strategic effect” against the Taliban. 

At the same time, U.S. troops are authorized to target “terrorist” groups in Afghanistan, such as al Qaeda, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s affiliate in Afghanistan — even though many of them are former Taliban members. 

{mosads}The Obama administration considers the Afghanistan War with the Taliban to be over since it ended the combat mission in December 2014, but still considers terrorists there as enemies. 

Wilson said these rules are “confusing, contradictory, inconsistent, and politically driven,” and that there should be no delineation between the Taliban and terrorist groups. 

Earlier this month, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan acknowledged at a press briefing that the groups “mix and converge.” 

“For example, Islamic State Khorasan today is formed of members of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and even some former members of the Afghan Taliban,” Army Gen. John Nicholson told reporters Dec. 2. 

Wilson called the delineation “contorted.” 

“It’s gotten so contorted. It’s so frustrating. … It’s frustrating for the troops,” Wilson said in an interview with The Hill earlier this month. “We’re dealing with illegal enemy combatants not in uniform.” 

“It is unconceivable to me, that you would have directives from the White House delineating … who’s Taliban, who’s al Qaeda, who’s Daesh, or ISIL,” he said.

Wilson introduced legislation in October that urges the president to give commanders on the ground more authority to target the Taliban, and plans to reintroduce the legislation in January, when Trump is due to take office. 

There are signs that Wilson will have a sympathetic ear. Trump commonly bashed restrictions on U.S. troops operating overseas, and his transition team at the Pentagon has asked the current administration for a list of restrictions on U.S. troops operating all around the world. 

And Trump’s nominee for Defense secretary, Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, has throughout his time commanding troops in Iraq and Afghanistan pushed for overwhelming force against the enemy. 

When he led the 1st Marines Division into Iraq in 2004, he directed his Marines to “kill or capture” instead of “capture or kill.” In 2005, he talked about going into Afghanistan and shooting the Taliban. 

“You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them,” he said. 

Although much has happened since then and the U.S.-led combat mission there was officially ended in 2014, the Taliban have now regained more territory in Afghanistan than ever before since 2001, when U.S. troops first pushed them out of power for giving safe haven to al Qaeda. 

And since the end of the combat mission, 21 U.S. troops have been killed in combat in Afghanistan — 10 of those occurring this year alone, as the Taliban have stepped up their efforts to regain control of Afghanistan. 

The Taliban now controls 28 percent of Afghanistan’s districts and are contesting with Afghan forces for control of more. 

The Obama administration has been forced to twice revise its plan to draw down all but about 1,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by 2017, instead leaving 8,400 by the time it leaves office.  

This year, it has also already twice relaxed restrictions on U.S. troops there — once in January to allow U.S. troops to target members of ISIS’s affiliate, and another time in June, to allow U.S. forces to help Afghan forces achieve “strategic effects,” or in other words, to provide some combat support when attacking the Taliban. 

Nicholson told reporters that loosening the restrictions have made a huge difference. 

“With these additional authorities to assist the Afghans, we’ve been able to make good progress,” he said. He also said, however, the current authorities were “adequate.” 

But Wilson believes the rules should be relaxed further, and now has a personal reason to advocate for it. 

He said in November, a Taliban suicide bomber killed four Americans at Bagram Air Base, and injured 16, including a member of the South Carolina Army National Guard. He has since visited her at the Walter Reed hospital in Bethesda, Md.

“She is very severely injured. And is currently at Walter Reed, so I’m grateful that she’s made it back. But the Taliban claim credit for the attack,” he said. 

Wilson argued that if U.S. forces aren’t allowed to go on the offensive against the Taliban, the group will continue to expand its control and possibly give safe haven to again to al Qaeda, who planned the 9/11 attacks against the U.S. 

“It’s a total disregard of what occurred on 9/11,” he said. “9/11 was an attack from a cave in Afghanistan with the Taliban complicit with al Qaeda. How could you forget this?”