WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary James Mattis has said that the United States will not repeat the mistakes of the past and in setting new troop levels in Afghanistan.

He told members of a US Senate panel late on Wednesday that President Donald Trump had delegated him the authority to determine the number of US troops in Afghanistan.

And in a statement issued after this hearing at the Senate’s defence subcommittee, Secretary Mattis pledged to work with a new vision and a new spirit.

“This administration will not repeat the mistakes of the past. We cannot allow Afghanistan to once again become a launching point for attacks on our homeland or on our allies,” he said.

He said the US and allied forces had used their vigilance and skill to ensure that “horrors on the scale of Sept 11, 2001” were not repeated but despite their efforts Afghanistan remained a dangerous place.

“The danger continues to evolve and that danger requires a commitment to defeat terrorist organisations that threaten the United States, other nations, and the people of Afghanistan,” he said.

He pointed out that the militant Islamic State group had established a branch in Nangarhar while Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups remained active in other parts of Afghanistan, and the Taliban too continued to pose a challenge to the democratically elected government in Kabul.

Secretary Mattis recognised the progress US forces and their allies and partners had made in “degrading” the strength of these groups, but warned that “their defeat will come about only by giving our men and women on the ground the support and the authorities they need to win”.

He said the delegation of this new authority will not change the nature and scope of US military presence in Afghanistan.

“Our core mission will remain the same: to train, advise and assist Afghan forces. We are there to help defeat a common enemy and ensure Afghan forces can safeguard the future of their country.”

Secretary Mattis said the new authority was part of a broader strategy that the Pentagon was developing to define its role in Afghanistan and beyond. “We will present this to the president in the coming weeks. We will continue to work with our allies and we will ask more of them.”

On Tuesday, Mr Mattis said in a testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee that “we are not winning in Afghanistan right now … and we will correct this as soon as possible”. He acknowledged that the Taliban were “surging” at the moment, and he intended to address this in the new strategy.

In February, the commander of the US and foreign forces in Afghanistan, Gen John Nicholson told a congressional panel that he would need more troops to pacify Afghanistan. Later, other officials hinted that US generals were demanding 3,000 to 5,000 additional troops and more authority to conduct ground operations.

About 13,000 US and coalition troops are currently in Afghanistan.

Secretary Mattis told the Senate defence subcommittee that the American military effort in Afghanistan must be viewed as part of a larger regional context in South Asia.

“Our primary national interest and the international interest in Afghanistan is ensuring it does not become an ungoverned space from which attacks can be launched against the United States, other nations or the Afghan people,” he said.

A Pentagon report said that to meet this national interest, some US forces were conducting partnered counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan, while other US forces were working with Nato’s Resolute Support mission to train Afghan forces to shoulder their country’s security mission.

Mr Mattis said the delegation of new authority was consistent with the authority President Trump granted him two months ago for Iraq and Syria and it does not, at this time, change the troop numbers for Afghanistan.

He said part of the reason for a resurgence of violence in Afghanistan was that international support was reduced too soon. “We pulled out our forces, at a time … when the violence was lower,” he said. “But we pulled them out on a timeline, rather than consistent with the maturation of the government and the security forces.”

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2017