Q & A GEN. JOSEPH F. DUNFORD JR., USMC
curity. In two years, which is fairly quick, we’ve transitioned all security responsibility to the Afghans. No question they’ve been in a tough fi ght. But as [departing commander Army] General [John F.] Campbell characterized it, “They’ve been resil- ient.” They’ve taken hits, but they’ve kept fi ghting. They do have capability gaps — in
Dunford meets with and speaks to U.S. servicemembers at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, in early December 2015 during a trip to visit troops deployed away from home during the holidays.
aviation, special operations, intel- ligence, logistics, and what I call ministerial capacity or the ability of ministries of interior and defense to sustain a police force and also an army. So the positive is we have transi- tioned to full Afghanistan Security Forces control. We’ve had successful elections. Afghan forces have been resilient in a tough fi ght against a de- termined enemy in the Taliban. The remaining challenges are the ones that the Resolute Support mission is designed to fi x. We’ve still got a long ways to go in Afghanistan. But we’re clear what needs to be done. That’s what our troops are getting after every day.
violent extremism have the where- withal to deal with it.
Has Russia’s role in Syria complicated your mission? Russia is not as helpful as they ad- vertise. Their priority has not been against ISIL. We don’t share the same political objectives. We would like Russia to focus on violent ex- tremism and to counter ISIL and not attack other organizations that, in some cases, we fi nd helpful. We were able in October to sign
a memorandum of agreement with Russia to ensure the safety of our people in the air and on the ground.
56 MILITARY OFFICER APRIL 2016
In November, I had a conversation with my counterpart in Moscow, General [Valery] Gerasimov, to talk about this. I’ve been pleased with implementation. It has enabled us to continue to prosecute the campaign as intended.
Where do we stand with the Afghanistan mission? First, I’ll provide a bit of historical context. I took command [of allied forces] in Afghanistan three years ago, in February 2013. There were over 100,000 Americans in the force then. There are now 9,800. In 2013, we had the lead on providing se-
Can U.S. forces safely draw down further without endangering the success that’s been achieved? I’ll begin with a bit of context. The most important thing about the cam- paign in Afghanistan is we haven’t had another 9/11 from the region as a re- sult of our presence and the constant counterterrorism operations conduct- ed there. Afghanistan is a counterter- rorism partner today and a country from which we can conduct counter- terrorism operations in the region. So to your question, regarding what the force ought to look like in the future, my recommendation will be informed by what level of eff ort is necessary to allow the Afghans to continue to be successful partners in dealing with security challenges
PHOTOS: DOD
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92