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By John McCain and Lindsey Graham By John McCain and Lindsey Graham March 13

John McCain (R-Ariz.) is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is a member of the committee.

On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists murdered 3,000 innocent civilians on American soil while under the sanctuary of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In response to that attack, U.S. and NATO forces deployed to Afghanistan to hunt down those responsible and ensure that Afghanistan would never again be a haven for terrorists. Since then, more than 2,000 Americans and more than 1,000 troops from our NATO allies have given their lives to that mission.

But after more than a decade-and-a-half of war, Gen. John W. Nicholson, commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month that the war in Afghanistan is in a stalemate. President Trump and his administration must treat Afghanistan with the same urgency as the fight against the Islamic State, or this stalemate risks sliding into strategic failure.

This month, two simultaneous suicide attacks by the Taliban in Kabul killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 40. In northern Afghanistan, the Taliban overran another district. These setbacks came on the heels of disturbing losses across the country. Nicholson recently confirmed an inspector general report that the Afghan government controls or influences just 57 percent of the countrys districts, down from 72percent just over a year ago.

Make no mistake: Afghans are fighting ferociously to defend their country from our common enemies. At the same time, we must recognize that the United States is still at war in Afghanistan against the terrorist enemies who attacked our nation on Sept. 11 and their ideological heirs. We must act accordingly.

Unfortunately, in recent years, we have tied the hands of our military in Afghanistan. Instead of trying to win, we have settled for just trying not to lose.

Time and time again, we saw troop withdrawals that seemed to have more to do with U.S. politics than conditions on the ground. The fixation with force management levels in Afghanistan, as well as in Iraq and Syria, seemed more about measuring troop counts than measuring success.

Authorities were also tightly restricted. Until last summer, our military was prohibited from targeting the Taliban, except in the most extreme circumstances, taking the pressure off the militants and allowing them to rebuild and reattack. Indeed, while we were fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, authorities in Afghanistan were so restrictive that it took an entire year before U.S. forces were finally given authority to strike the groups fighters in Afghanistan.

While we have settled for a dont lose strategy, the risk to U.S. and Afghan forces has only grown worse as the terrorist threat has intensified.

The Taliban has grown more lethal, expanded its territorial control and inflicted heavy casualties on Afghan forces. And it is reportedly doing so with help from Iran and Russia, who want nothing more than to see the United States fail in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda and the Haqqani network continue to threaten our interests in Afghanistan and beyond.

The Islamic State is trying to carve out another haven from which it can plan and execute attacks.

Moreover, U.S. efforts to confront these terrorist threats are continually frustrated by terrorist sanctuaries in Pakistan used to attack across its border and kill U.S. forces. Deteriorating relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan only make this problem more difficult.

Trump has an important opportunity to turn the page, seize the initiative and take the fight to our terrorist enemies. To do this, the United States must align ends, ways and means in Afghanistan.

The U.S. objective in Afghanistan is the same now as it was in 2001: to prevent terrorists from using the countrys territory to attack our homeland.

We seek to achieve this objective by supporting Afghan governance and security institutions as they become capable of standing on their own, defending their country and defeating our common terrorist enemies with less U.S. assistance over time.

Doing this successfully requires the right number of people in the right places with the right authorities and the right capabilities. Our assessment, based on our conversations with commanders on the ground, is that a strategy for success will require additional U.S. and coalition forces and more flexible authorities. It will also require sustained support of the Afghan security forces as they develop key capabilities, especially offensive capabilities such as special operations forces and close air support needed to break the stalemate.

The United States has been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 16 years. Weary as some Americans may be of this long conflict, it is imperative that we see our mission through to success. We have seen what happens when we fail to be vigilant. The threats we face are real. And the stakes are high not just for the lives of the Afghan people and the stability of the region, but for Americas national security.

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John McCain and Lindsey Graham: Why we need more forces to end the stalemate in Afghanistan - Washington Post

Afghanistan continues to be torn by a three-decade long conflict and recurrent natural disasters which have forced an ever increasing number of families to leave their homes. In 2016, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnees reached unprecedented records, with more than 623,000 people on the move due to conflict alone. Many families have joined informal settlements throughout the country, straining the already limited resources available in these sites. Despite these widespread new trends, very little comprehensive research focused on informal settlements exists, with a particular lack of research on Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan due to the recent forced migration.

In an effort to fill this knowledge gap, REACH has launched the Informal Settlement Profiling Project, aimed at identifying, assessing, and mapping informal settlements in Afghanistan on an ongoing basis. As a first step, REACH teams focused on provinces with significant influxes of returnees and IDPs, prioritising assessments in Kabul and Nangarhar which together regroup over 80 informal settlements. In a second phase, REACH will conduct assessments in informal settlements in Afghan provinces including Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat, Balkh and Baghlan while in parallel establishing a monitoring system aimed at reviewing each informal settlement on a monthly basis.

The newly released factsheets compile findings from all assessments conducted in Kabul and Nangarhar provinces, through data collected via informal settlement residents. REACH findings provide a detailed overview of the size, population, and displacement history of each settlement, as well as an accurate mapping of their boundaries and infrastructures. Different security and humanitarian conditions were identified for each site, with data collected referring to more than 472,000 individuals in total. In Kabul province, residents reported a general sense of security, with good access to health and education services. Informal settlements In Nangarhar province are facing a lack of access to drinking water and a widespread lack of health and education facilities. Displaced population also reported very limited possibilities to find refuge outside of the informal sites, due to financial hardship and lack of other shelter options available.

REACH will continue monitoring each settlement on a monthly basis to capture any significant change in vulnerabilities and make sure its findings allow for a targeted and effective humanitarian assistance in an ever-changing environment.

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Afghanistan: New REACH project monitors highly vulnerable informal settlements in Kabul and Nangarhar - ReliefWeb

KHOST, Afghanistan Gunmen attacked a military air base in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, officials said on Saturday.

Khost police spokesman Faizullah Ghairat said that three militants had attacked the base, close to the border with Pakistan. One had been killed, while two others were still holding out, he said.

There was no immediate comment from the headquarters of the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Kabul.

The incident comes just ahead of the normal start of the spring fighting season, when warmer weather brings increased operations by both insurgents and government forces.

Afghan and U.S. officials have warned that Afghanistan will see increased fighting this year as the Taliban steps up an insurgency which has cut the area controlled by the government to below 60 percent.

Earlier this week, the head of U.S. Central Command, General Joseph Votel, asked for more American troops to join the roughly 8,400 already stationed there.

The Afghan interior ministry said that over the past 25 hours, security forces had killed 51 armed militants in counter-terrorism operations across Afghanistan.

In a separate incident in the southeastern province of Zabul, two renegade policemen killed eight colleagues and defected to the Taliban, local officials said, although details of the incident, which occurred last Friday, were unclear.

"They first poisoned them and after that shot and killed all of them," Zabul Governor Bismillah Afghanmal said, adding that the men stole weapons and equipment before defecting.

The Taliban's main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied that the two poisoned their colleagues, saying that they had "prepared the way" for other fighters to attack the checkpoint.

(Reporting by Ahmad Shah in KHOST and Ismail Sameem in KANDAHAR; Editing by Alexander Smith)

BEIRUT/DAMASCUS A double bomb attack targeting Shi'ite pilgrims in Damascus killed at least 40 Iraqis and wounded 120 more who were going to pray at a nearby shrine, the Iraqi foreign ministry said.

BEIRUT Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said U.S. forces in Syria were "invaders" and he had yet to see "anything concrete" emerge from U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to prioritize the fight against Islamic State.

BAGHDAD Islamic State has released dozens of prisoners held in jails in the districts of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that remain under its control, residents said on Saturday.

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Gunmen attack military airport in eastern Afghanistan - Reuters

Afghanistan: Wheel turns full circle Pakistan Observer To the contrary, it warrants far more deep attention because potentially it contains within itself seeds of same hostility and confrontation between Pakistan and Afghanistan which existed prior to Russian tanks rolled into Kabul in Dec 1979. The ... and more »

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Afghanistan: Wheel turns full circle - Pakistan Observer

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--The USO tour left the hotel here before dawn on a Friday and over the duration of the itinerary flew three hours on a 737 to Bagram Airbase in northern Afghanistan, went from Bagram to a pair of smaller U.S. military installations in the country by helicopter, choppered back to Bagram, by 737 from Bagram to Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, had a 45-minute layover without deplaning and, finally, from Kandahar to Dubai, where it all started.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and it was over. Five days, thousands of miles in the air in various machines, a few more in shuttle busses that hauled them around the base in Bagram, several kidneys and a couple vertebrae donated without consent to canyons in the road some liberally, but very mistakenly, called potholes. The itinerary for retired players Sam Perkins and Caron Butler, NBA Vice President of Referee Operations Bob Delaney and Ivory Latta of the WNBAs Washington Mystics while All-Star weekend played out in New Orleans had been both exhausting and exhilarating and everything in between.

Now Perkins stood at the baggage carousel in the Dubai airport, waiting with the group to claim theirluggage before a car ride to the hotel where they had originally gathered. Some would check in for a few hours as a brief stop before catching red-eyes headed north and west, over Europe, over the Atlantic, bound for various destinations in the United States, some stayed the night.

Perkins was the one who, minutes after arriving in Afghanistan, so soon that he was still basically a 3-pointer away from the chartered 737 as troops greeted the VIPs, said, Youre just in it now. Its just surreal. When it was over, he would define the visit.

I had gone on another USO trip about five months ago, but we went on a tour. You didnt really stay in one place. We went to Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, in the same place we just visited. We met the soldiers in different places, not only American soldiers, but Romanian soldiers as well, the Czechs. It was like more of tour. We had band members, celebrities from Hollywood and myself and my daughter. We just kind of schmoozed and got to know a lot of people in a short span of time because we were in a rush. But this time it was more of a real feel, because you got to personally know some guys and some of their stories. Its always good to have a story they would find interesting. They were interested.

It was what I expected. But with the fanfare and the events, you got to know them even more personally. You would get to know people. Thats what happened. It was a different perspective from the prior trip I took. That was more about the signing and signing autographs. This was more personal.

Its almost like the people that we got to know through this whole duration, I guess they were in a way wishing we wouldnt go. But we knew the day would come for us to depart. I think we really got close to them, got connected to them, so when you land somewhere else and leave that behind you kind of reflect a little bit about what took place.

A soldier said to me when he saw us the other day that hes had a trying time getting through this (time in Afghanistan). With us coming, he did a reset. I think that helped him a great deal, so he can now push through for another six months because the trying times and Groundhog Days and every day is the same thing. When he said that to me, that made me feel that we were there for a purpose. Whether we take it lightly or not or we think we can or cannot make a difference or not, we made a difference with one person at least.

I guess were all mentors in some way, in some aspect. Just hearing that, it makes you feel good. But knowing that this trip was important, more important than being at the All-Star Game, I think we were medicine to some. We were here for a purpose and thats what we came for. We all kind of connected with one another and made it more worthwhile for them. Just the interaction.

The basketball, the games, the coaching, laughing with the guys and women, just sitting down and having lunch or dinner with them. Just seeing us there made it more special to them. And like I said before, the importance of having somebody around just to boost your morale and confidence, it makes it all worthwhile. We dont know what outcome that may be for a person, but Im glad I came.

The realness of the soldiers will stay with me. Theyre just like you and I except, from talking to them, they all willfully signed up to come, to protect and serve the country. No one asked them to be there. No one told them to come. They came of their own conscience. Thats probably going to stand out to me as much as anything because Im grateful for what they do and what they stand for. They all have hardships while theyre serving, but at the same time they take pride.

Youre a badass when youre carrying around a gun all day, so I respect that. But the women are more interesting. Ive never seen so many women take pride in doing something different, instead of worrying about being glam all the time or being about themselves. They did it for whatever reasons, but theyre doing it because of their country. They have families as well. All these people we connected with all have families and they love them to death and they want to get back to them, but they know that theres something at stake and they want to do the job with pride.

When I took the first trip, it changed me. It made me think about a lot of things. All the things that are going on in the United States, people have their own way of respecting the flag and respecting the soldiers. Theyre all doing it in a good, positive way. Some people take it in a negative, disenchanted way, but I think overall, when I get back, when I come back from these trips, it makes you think about the people you connected with. The faces. The conversations we had. What we talked about. We talked about everyday things, everyday life and perspective. We had some things in common that were able to connect.

Theyre ordinary guys and women that are over there fighting. They worry all the time. They dont, probably, show it a lot. Its all right to do that. But at the same time, they show pride in what they do. And they do it to the fullest. Ill always remember them no matter what and hopefully we can see them on the other side.

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Sam Perkins reflects on 'personal' USO trip to Afghanistan - NBA.com