馬蒂斯就阿富汗戰略與北約盟友磋商

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is in Brussels, where he will consult with NATO allies on troop contributions and other support for Afghanistan, before announcing his own policy plan for the war-torn country.

The Pentagon has promised a new Afghanistan plan by mid-July, and Michael O’Hanlon, a senior defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, expects the new plan will not be a “repeal and replace” strategy, but rather a reformation of the Obama administration’s plan.

“Mattis and Trump are just repairing a mistake, in effect, that I think President Barack Obama made. And it is, in a sense, more properly carrying out Obama’s own strategy than Obama himself did,” O’Hanlon told VOA.

The strategy will still focus on Afghan troops taking the lead on security in the country, a critical point in the Obama administration’s military efforts since June 2013. But O’Hanlon explains why he thinks the past president made a mistake when he cut American military support in the country from about 100,000 U.S. troops in May 2011 to fewer than 10,000 American troops over a four-year span.

“That was probably too fast and too low, so by restoring just a few thousand more, I think we can get advisers out in the field with some of the key Afghan units and hopefully really stabilize the situation,” O’Hanlon said.

Mattis is expected to meet with General John Nicholson, the commander of international forces in Afghanistan, ahead of the NATO defense ministers meeting, where he will press some allies to increase their commitments to Afghanistan.

“We have to think about what else they can bring to bear to help,” Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White told VOA last week. “I know everyone wants to know what’s going to happen, but the secretary is being very deliberative and very thoughtful about what the commanders need and what’s necessary to change the tide.”美國國防部長馬蒂斯正在布魯塞爾，即將跟北約盟友就各國向阿富汗派兵人數和對阿富汗的其它支持進行協商。馬蒂斯不久將宣佈他對阿富汗的政策計劃。

五角大樓曾保證，要在七月中旬以前提出有關阿富汗的新計劃。布魯金斯學會的高級國防分析師歐漢龍預計，新計劃不會徹底改變現有戰略，而是對奧巴馬政府的阿富汗計劃進行調整。

歐漢龍告訴美國之音說：“我認爲，馬蒂斯和川普其實只是在糾正奧巴馬總統犯下的錯誤而已，在某種程度上，是要比奧巴馬更恰當地執行奧巴馬當時制定的策略。”

這一策略的重點依然將是讓阿富汗部隊擔負主要保安職責。這是奧巴馬政府2013年6月以來在阿富汗軍事行動的一個關鍵點。但是歐漢龍解釋說，他認爲，奧巴馬將美國派往阿富汗的部隊人數從2011年5月的10萬人在四年多的時間裏減少到不足1萬人，是一個錯誤的決定。

歐漢龍說：“這樣做步子太快，留下的兵力也太少。只要恢復幾千人的兵力，我們就能讓軍事顧問回到阿富汗一些重要的軍事部門，希望能借此穩定住局勢。”

美國國防部長馬蒂斯在參加北約國防部長會議前，預計將於阿富汗國際部隊指揮官約翰·尼克爾森上將會面，要求一些盟友增強對阿富汗支持的力度。

五角大樓發言人懷特上星期告訴美國之音說：“我們必須想想看，他們還能在哪些方面出力。大家都希望知道接下來會發生什麼，但是國防部長馬蒂斯非常慎重，要考慮到戰地指揮官到底需要什麼，如何做才能扭轉局面。”