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[Militants]

Afghanistan: Obama okays new authority for U.S. forces - CNNPolitics.com

Obama okays new authority for U.S. forces in Afghanistan

(CNN)President Barack Obama has approved new authority for U.S. troops that would pave the way for military operations to once again support conventional Afghanistan forces against the Taliban under limited circumstances, a senior U.S. military official told CNN.

"This is not a blanket order to target the Taliban," the official said.
However, under the new authorities, U.S. troops would be allowed to accompany conventional Afghan forces into the field to advise and assist them. Under current rules, U.S. participation is largely limited to supporting Afghan special forces.
A U.S. official said the new plan allows mainly for "close air support" strikes to ensure the safety of U.S. and Afghan forces by hitting Taliban positions. But those airstrikes may also require U.S. military "air controller" personnel on the ground to pick out targets and relay details to pilots overhead.
The new rules could also open the door for more U.S. airstrikes and ground action against the Taliban to ensure U.S. and Afghan forces are protected, the official indicated. Still, the Pentagon does not believe U.S. troops will be "in direct combat," the official said.
The Pentagon and White House have been debating for weeks not only about a change to U.S. troops levels in Afghanistan, but whether to amend the current military authorities that restrict U.S. airstrikes against Taliban targets.
Under the current rules, the U.S. military broadly has authority to strike any targets on the ground under three scenarios: to protect U.S. forces on ground; to go after the remnants of Al Qaeda; and to protect Afghan forces when they are facing imminent danger of being overrun by the Taliban.
The discussion inside the administration has been centered around whether to change those authorities so U.S. warplanes could now strike Taliban targets even if they do not pose a direct imminent threat.
"The question of authorities" is being looked at, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters Thursday.
It's not clear if Defense Secretary Ash Carter had proposed to the White House a change in U.S. troop levels. Currently, there are about 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The plan now calls for a drawdown to about 5,500 in 2017. The drawdown could be slowed within that time frame to keep more troops in the country for as long as possible, but it's not clear that decision has been made.
Broadly speaking, the U.S. believes the performance of Afghan security forces has improved, according to Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, the chief spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. But there are concerns as the summer fighting season goes on that the Taliban will pose security problems in southern Afghanistan.
"The Taliban has shifted their main effort down to Helmand," Cleveland said, noting, however, that the U.S. hasn't seen the full Taliban offensive it expected. Still, the reemergence of the Taliban threat has led to this vigorous discussion inside the administration about what to do about it, officials told CNN.
The Defense Department had been expected to announce on Friday changes in the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan to increase the ability to attack Taliban targets, but it was canceled on Thursday according to several officials familiar with the effort. None of the officials agreed to be identified due to the sensitivity of the discussions inside the administration, and the Pentagon declined to confirm any announcement was planned for Friday. None of the officials CNN spoke to report to Carter.

 

[irosie91]

not good news -------anyone see it as good news?

 

[Militants]

Afghanistan war is not over yet.

Taliban milis is under 19,000 warriors this day.

 

[Militants]

India, Japan, U.S. plan naval exercises in tightening of ties in Indian Ocean

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Japan is set to take part in joint naval exercises with India and the United States in the Indian Ocean in October, military and diplomatic sources said, a drill that so riled China eight years ago that Delhi has not since hosted such a multilateral wargame.

The Indian Ocean has emerged as a new arena of competition between China making inroads and India trying to recover its position as the dominant maritime power in the region.

New Delhi's decision to expand the "Malabar" exercises that it conducts with the United States each year to include Japan suggests a tightening of military relations between three major maritime powers in Asia, analysts said.

Military officials from India, the U.S. and Japan are meeting at a U.S. navy base in Yokosuka, near Tokyo, on Wednesday and Thursday to plan the exercises, a navy and a diplomatic source in New Delhi said.

A Japanese government official in Tokyo confirmed the meeting and said representatives from the three navies were discussing Tokyo's participation in the wargames. He declined to be identified.

The officials will decide the type of warships and planes the navies will deploy for the exercises in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean, said one of the sources familiar with the initial planning.

"They are discussing platforms, logistics and interoperability between the three naval forces," said the source. India and the United States have fielded aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines in previous bilateral exercises.

An Indian defense ministry official declined any comment on Malabar 2015, saying announcements will only be made closer to the event. A spokesman for Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force said no decision had yet been taken on Japan's participation.

CLOSER TIES

Jeff Smith, a South Asia specialist at the American Foreign Policy Council, said Japan was keen to take part in the exercises this year at a time when it is expanding the role of its military against a more assertive China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's inclusion of Japan after some hesitation was part of a trending pattern of forging close ties with the U.S. and its allies.

"I'd view aircraft carrier participation in this year's drill as yet another signal from the Modi government that it was shedding the (previous) government's anxiety about a more overt balancing posture toward China and a more robust strategic embrace of the U.S. and Japan," Smith said.

India last hosted a multilateral exercise in 2007 when it invited Japan, Australia and Singapore to join its drills with the U.S. navy in the Bay of Bengal, prompting disquiet in Beijing where some saw it as a U.S.-inspired security grouping in the making along the lines of NATO in Europe.

At the time, Beijing activated diplomatic channels seeking an explanation from the participating nations, said Gurpreet Khurana, Indian navy captain and executive director of the government-funded Maritime Foundation of India.

The exercises held in the Indian Ocean were scaled back in the following years, with India participating in three-way events only when it was away from its shores, such as last year's drills off Japan's Nagasaki coast.

AN OCEAN OF RIVALRY

But China's expanding naval footprint in the Indian Ocean including submarines docking in Sri Lanka, just off the toe of India last year, and again in Karachi in May, has prompted Modi's administration to accelerate naval modernization as well as shore up ties with maritime nations.

"Modi's Delhi is no longer willing to give Beijing a veto over its defense partnerships," said C. Raja Mohan, a top Indian foreign policy expert who has just published a book: "Modi's World: Expanding India's Sphere of Influence."

Just as China had overridden India's concerns about arch-enemy Pakistan and was building ports and roads under a $46 billion economic corridor, New Delhi was free to pursue closer security cooperation with the West and its partners, Mohan said.

The Indian Ocean has become the new global center of trade and energy flows, accounting for half the world’s container traffic and 70 percent of its petroleum shipments.

More than three quarters of China's oil transits through the Indian Ocean and its choke points such as the Malacca Straits, prompting its search for friendly ports and islands to secure the shipping lanes backed by an expanding Chinese navy, Chinese commentators say.

"India alone cannot assure the security of the Indian Ocean, even if it regards (it) as its backyard and wishes no one to compete with it there," wrote Zhou Bo, an honorary fellow at the Beijing-based Academy of Military Science in the China Daily.

"If the Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate China and the U.S., so is the Indian Ocean to accommodate India and China."