The U.S. and its allies are working to create a new American-led military command in southern Afghanistan, a change that will substantially expand the Pentagon's role in directing the future course of the Afghan war.
Senior military officials say the new command, which will be led by a two-star Marine general, will manage all military operations in Helmand province, including the continuing campaign in Marjah.
The organizational change will allow the existing British-led command in southern Afghanistan to focus exclusively on the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, which the Obama administration has publicly identified as the site of the next major offensive of the war.
Many of the 30,000 U.S. reinforcements currently being deployed to Afghanistan will take part in the assault on Kandahar, the most-populous city in southern Afghanistan and the Taliban's spiritual birthplace.
American and British commanders plan to use the additional troops to build a security cordon around Kandahar to make it harder for Taliban fighters to intimidate local residents or assassinate Afghan government officials and security personnel there.
As with Marjah, senior U.S. personnel are publicly telegraphing the upcoming Kandahar campaign, which will likely start this summer. A senior White House official said last week that the Marjah campaign was a "tactical prelude" to a substantially bigger assault on Kandahar.
"Kandahar city is the home base, the capital city, of the Taliban movement," the official said. "Bringing security, comprehensive population security, to Kandahar city is really the centerpiece of operations this year."
The establishment of the new command is meant to help set the stage for the Kandahar assault. All military operations in both Helmand and Kandahar are currently managed by the British-led "Regional Command-South," which has its headquarters at the sprawling Kandahar Air Field. As part of the organizational changes, that organization will be renamed "Regional Command-Southeast" and directed to focus exclusively on the upcoming Kandahar campaign.
At the same time, the U.S. will build an entirely new command, "Regional Command-Southwest," at Camp Bastion, a rapidly expanding American base near Lashkar Gah, Helmand's provincial capital.
"This is the answer to how we'll array our troops and reorient the commands to meet the mission on the ground," said a senior military official who is familiar with the plans to establish the new command. "It's basically a done deal."
The idea for the command changes originated with Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top Western military officer in Afghanistan. Rear Adm. Greg Smith, a spokesman for Gen. McChrystal, said the commander's strategic review of the war effort last summer concluded that the main military offensives going forward would all be in southern Afghanistan and "that the number of forces would exceed the command and control capacity of a single regional commander."
Regional Command-South is currently led by British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the architect of the Marjah offensive. When the new command is established, Gen. Carter will shift his focus to Kandahar, leaving the incoming Marine general to oversee current and future operations in Helmand. Adm. Smith said he expected a final decision on the organizational changes within the next month ....
