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."
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.