últimas notícias

“We conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in multiple countries where we don’t have permanent military presence,” Mr. Biden said this month. “If necessary, we’ll do the same in Afghanistan. We’ve developed counterterrorism over-the-horizon capability that will allow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the direct threats to the United States in the region, and act quickly and decisively if needed.”

Their original plan for Afghanistan, however, was premised on a scenario in which the United States would conduct airstrikes with the consent of President Ashraf Ghani, supporting his government’s efforts to resist any transnational terrorist groups, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, that sought to use the country as a base of operations. The Taliban, while separately vying for control of the country, would be neutral in that category of conflict, at least on the surface.

But instead, Mr. Ghani fled, the Afghan army abruptly abdicated and the Taliban swept into power as the de facto government. As a result, a playbook for any future counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan now needs to be redeveloped against the awkward backdrop of uncertainty about the Taliban’s intentions, including whether they will return to hosting terrorist camps as they did in the 1990s, the officials said.

The current and former officials briefed on the deliberations over the drone strike policy spoke about the delicate internal discussions only on the condition of anonymity. Asked for comment, the National Security Council’s press office re-sent The New York Times a statement it had provided in March for an article about the legal policy review, which was then in an early stage.

The Biden plans make sense both to raise standards for protecting civilians but also to maintain greater flexibility for different settings across the world, said Luke Hartig, who worked on drone strike policy for the Obama administration as a senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

But, he added: “Afghanistan is going to have to be very fluid. I would hate to have to write guidance for Afghanistan right now.”