{"id":2020076,"date":"2023-09-02T07:18:01","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T11:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-counterterrorism-abilities-in-afghanistan-questioned-two-years-after-bidens-withdrawal\/"},"modified":"2023-09-02T07:20:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T11:20:35","slug":"us-counterterrorism-abilities-in-afghanistan-questioned-two-years-after-bidens-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-counterterrorism-abilities-in-afghanistan-questioned-two-years-after-bidens-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"US counterterrorism abilities in Afghanistan questioned 2 years post-Biden&#8217;s withdrawal."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fus-counterterrorism-abilities-in-afghanistan-questioned-two-years-after-bidens-withdrawal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2020076&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The United States&#8217; Counterterrorism Strategy in\u200b Afghanistan Raises Questions<\/h2>\n<p>The United \u2063States&#8217; ability to maintain counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan without boots on the ground has come under scrutiny. Despite the Biden \u200badministration&#8217;s assurance that it could effectively carry\u200b out its strategy, only one drone strike has been publicly announced\u200c within Afghanistan since the military\u200c withdrawal.<\/p>\n<h3>The End of the War in Afghanistan<\/h3>\n<p>In August 2021, President Joe Biden fulfilled his campaign promise to end the \u200bwar in Afghanistan. However, the U.S. left with the Taliban back in \u200dcontrol of the\u2064 country, reminiscent of the\u200c situation 20 years ago when U.S. \u200ctroops were initially deployed after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Biden&#8217;s administration believes it can\u200d still execute its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sidney-powell-live-there-is-more-than-enough-evidence-in-the-public-now-to-more-than-reverse-the-election-in-at-least-5-states-video\/\" title=\"Sidney Powell LIVE: \u201cThere Is More than Enough Evidence in the Public Now to More than Reverse the Election in at Least 5 States\u201d (VIDEO)\">counterterrorism strategy<\/a> through over-the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-to-rely-on-over-the-horizon-capabilities-to-identify-threats-with-no-troops-on-the-ground-in-afghanistan\/\" title=\"U.S. to rely on over-the-horizon capabilities to identify threats with no troops on the ground in Afghanistan\">-horizon capabilities<\/a>. These <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-counterterrorism-abilities-in-afghanistan-questioned-two-years-after-bidens-withdrawal\/\" title=\"US counterterrorism abilities in Afghanistan questioned 2 years post-Biden's withdrawal.\">capabilities involve monitoring specific areas<\/a> through aircraft and other \u200dmeans without physically having boots on the ground.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Fast forward, having left two\u200c years ago, we&#8217;ve done one drone strike. So having \u200bpreviously been able, because we had people on the ground to help with\u200c targeting ensuring we don&#8217;t \u2062have unnecessary collateral damage and provide battle damage assessment,&#8221; retired Col. John Barranco, a U.S. Marine Corps fellow at the Atlantic Council, told\u2062 the Washington Examiner. &#8220;I think the\u200b contrast in the numbers narrative is pretty telling what a difference it makes to be there present on the \u200dground versus\u2063 where we are now.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Since the U.S. withdrawal, the only strike launched \u200cinto Afghanistan targeted Ayman Al Zawahiri, the successor of Osama bin Laden in al-Qaeda&#8217;s leadership.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The short answer to your question is yes, we do maintain over-the-horizon capability and we&#8217;ll take appropriate measures as necessary when it comes to safeguarding our homeland\u2063 and protecting our national interests,&#8221;\u200c Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Thursday\u2062 in response\u2064 to a question about whether the U.S. can still conduct over-the-horizon strikes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Without boots on the ground, U.S. forces heavily rely on \u200boverhead capabilities for conducting counterterrorism missions from a distance. Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper explained\u200d that having troops \u2064in the country provides a variety of resources to gather information and confirm details in much greater detail.<\/p>\n<p>U.S.\u2063 Central \u2062Command chief Gen. Michael &#8220;Erik&#8221; Kurilla \u2064expressed concerns that ISIS-K, the Afghanistan \u2063branch of the Islamic State, could \u200blaunch attacks against U.S. interests outside of Afghanistan in less than six months &#8220;with \u200blittle to no warning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the\u200d administration highlighted the Zawahiri strike as evidence of its reach without troops on the ground,\u200b his location in \u2064an upscale neighborhood in Kabul suggested that he was staying\u200b there with \u200cthe knowledge and permission of the Taliban.<\/p>\n<p>Retired Col. John Barranco emphasized that leaving Afghanistan made U.S. military personnel safer,\u2062 but it \u200dalso increased \u200cthe risk for Americans\u2063 overseas in Europe, the Middle East, and within the continental United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US conducted only one drone strike in Afghanistan since its military withdrawal, fueling doubts about the Biden administration&#8217;s claim of maintaining counterterrorism operations without troops. President Biden fulfilled his campaign pledge to end the war in August 2021, but the Taliban regained control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2020077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2020076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2020076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2020077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2020076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2020076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2020076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}