As troops depart, U.S. may drop Afghan counterinsurgency mission

The U.S. military could shed its troop-intensive counterinsurgency approach in Afghanistan as more and more American forces are brought home, a top commander said Tuesday.

President Obama inserted an additional 33,000 troops to Afghanistan last year, a move military commanders say helped create progress by providing an ample level of troops for a counterinsurgency.

But when Obama last week announced those troops will all be out of that nation by next September, lawmakers and military experts began to question whether fewer troops would hinder the counterinsurgency approach.

That’s because, “in a counterinsurgency, firepower is manpower,” Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the House Armed Services Committee last Thursday.

Obama administration and Pentagon officials have said in the wake of Obama’s announcement that the counterinsurgency approach -- of which counterterrorism is a part -- continues to be the basis of the mission there.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) asked Obama’s pick to be the next U.S. commander in Afghanistan whether he believes the military will have to “shift to a counterterrorism (C.T.) model or can you blend the two strategies?”

Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Allen said that a mix of tactics already is occurring. If confirmed by the committee and the full Senate, he will get a fourth star and become the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

“We would see that there will continue to be a counterterrorism dimension to the overarching counterinsurgency campaign,” Allen told the panel. “And as time passes, as conditions in the battle space evolve, as we approach 2014, and as we define our long-term relationship with Afghanistan, we may well see that the development of C.T. will become even more important as time goes on.”

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