They faced skeptical lawmakers, including committee chairman John McCain (R.-Ariz.), who lambasted a lack of transparency by the administration about its plans. Mattis has said about 3,000 U.S. troops will join 11,000 American forces and 6,800 additional international troops from allied nations. At an Oct. 3 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Defense Secretary James Mattis announced R4+S, President Trump's new Afghan strategy, which stands for "Regionalize, Realign, Reinforce, Reconcile and Sustain." Mattis and Dunford said that broadly, that will require the United States to build more support internationally to sway Pakistan from doing so. “My military assessment is that we drew down our advisory effort and combat support for the Afghan forces too far and too fast,” Dunford said.

Source: Washington Post October 03, 2017 16:30 UTC