Vol. 78/No. 44      December 8, 2014

In addition to maintaining some 10,000 troops on the ground, the order unleashes U.S. jets, bombers and drones to support Afghan troops on combat missions. The Air Force intends to use F-16 fighters, B-1B bombers, along with Predator and Reaper drones.

At the same time, the new Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani lifted a more than yearlong ban on nighttime military raids on suspected Taliban combatants’ homes. Afghan special forces plan to resume the raids, which, under Obama’s new order, can include U.S. special operations units.

The move is a turnaround from Obama’s May 27 press conference announcing that combat operations in Afghanistan would end in 2014.

The shift comes as Taliban forces have made gains in Helmand province, home to the thriving opium poppy trade, which accounts for 20 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product. This year’s harvest jumped 17 percent.

Washington’s shift also reflects growing concern among the propertied rulers about the rapid expansion of Islamic State, the disintegration of the Iraqi army, and events from Syria to Ukraine, all of which stand in contradiction to Obama’s May statement that “it’s time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

On Nov. 24 Obama pushed Chuck Hagel to resign as defense secretary.  
 
 
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