US not winning in Afghanistan: US defense chief

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday that the United States is still "not winning" the longest US war in Afghanistan.


"We are not winning in Afghanistan right now," said Mattis here at a congressional hearing. "And we will correct this as soon as possible."

According to Mattis, the Pentagon defines the winning in Afghanistan as a situation where the Afghan government, with international help, will be able to handle the violence and drive it down to a level that local security forces can handle it.

"It would probably require residual force doing training and maintaining the high-end capability," said Mattis. "It's going to be an era of frequent skirmishing and it's going to require a change in our approach from the last several years if we're to get it to that position."

Mattis was not the first senior official of the administration of US President Donald Trump to publicly warn of a dire prospect for the security situation in Afghanistan.
 [globaltimes.cn]
14/6/17
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