US to Scale Back Contact With Afghan Forces After Insider Attacks

Officials say 'regular contact' will continue by telephone, email

During the height of the Obama-era surge in Afghanistan, a massive number of insider attacks started cropping up. The Pentagon resolved this ultimately by virtually eliminating direct contact with Afghan forces.

But the Trump-era surge is starting to have the same problem, as they started bringing troops in more direct contact for “training” purposes, and insider attacks are again on the rise. The Pentagon, again, has announced they are halting nearly all face-to-face contact with the Afghan military.

US officials are downplaying the matter, saying it is standard practice now, and that all regular contact will continue with the Afghans, they’ll just be contacting them by telephone or email instead.

Afghan officials also downplayed it, saying they can still go to the US side of the bases if they have to, and it’s just the US troops that are being told to stay away from the Afghans.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.