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Ex-DoD Official Explains What Command Change Means for Trump’s Afghan Strategy

© AFP 2023 / Romeo GacadIn this photo taken on August 5, 2011, US troops from the Charlie Company, 2-87 Infantry, 3d Brigade Combat Team under Afghanistan's International Security Assistance Force patrols Kandalay village following Taliban attacks on a joint US and Afghan National Army checkpoint protecting the western area of Kandalay village.
In this photo taken on August 5, 2011, US troops from the Charlie Company, 2-87 Infantry, 3d Brigade Combat Team under Afghanistan's International Security Assistance Force patrols Kandalay village following Taliban attacks on a joint US and Afghan National Army checkpoint protecting the western area of Kandalay village. - Sputnik International
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Donald Trump’s selection of a new general to command US forces in Afghanistan will not mean any change in the strategy he approved last year, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Steven Bucci told Sputnik on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Austin Miller to replace Gen. John Nicholson to command US Forces-Afghanistan, the Defense Department said in a press release.

"He [Miller] is just a highly qualified and talented guy," Bucci said when he was asked if the appointment would mean any change in US strategy in the sixteen-and-a-half-year-long Afghan war. "This signals nothing different."

U.S. soldiers patrol the perimeter of a weapons cache four miles of the US military base in Bagram, Afghanistan (File) - Sputnik International
Trump Appoints Austin Miller to Command US Forces-Afghanistan
Miller has been nominated for promotion to full four star general rank and has served as head of US Special Operations Command for the past two years. He is a veteran of combat operations in Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Miller's appointment comes after the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said that the United States has failed to stabilize Afghanistan despite 16 years of occupation and billions invested in stability programs.

According to the SIGAR report, the Defense Department and the US Agency for International Development have spent around $4.7 billion on stabilization initiatives since 2001, but the projects failed to improve Afghan government capacity and performance.

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