MICHAEL S. LEE ‘COMMITTEES: JUDICARY ENERGY ANO United States Senate var es WASHINGTON, DC 20510-4404 Senraronaeent JOINT ECONOMIC ‘COMMITTEE President Donald J. Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Washington, DC 20500 May 12,2017 President Trump, ‘News reports indicate that your administration is considering a change in U.S. strategy in Afghanistan after an extensive review of current policy. Congress passed the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) shortly after the September 11" attacks on our country. Under this authority our military has been operating in Afghanistan since 2001 - making it the longest sustained conflict in American history. I respectfully request answers to the following questions on the possible strategy changes being considered: 1. What specific benchmarks or tactical objectives will be used by the Administration and Department of Defense to measure strategic success? What will strategic success look like for the United States, and is there a specific condition that must be met by the Afghan government for success to be achieved? 2. From 2006 to 2014 the United States had over 20,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan at any given time, with 100,000 military personnel in the country between 2010 and 2011. However, these levels of military activity did not yield the long-term stability or security gains that were desired. How would an increase in the level of U.S forces in Afghanistan and new strategy achieve a different outcome at this time? 3. The United States has been involved in attempts to rebuild the central government in Afghanistan to stabilize the country for a decade and a half, yet U.S government investigators and non-government organizations continue to report systemic issues of corruption, waste, and abuse within the Afghan government. ‘The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in their September 2016 report on corruption in Afghanistan stated: “We conelude that failure to effectively address the problem [corruption] means US. reconstruction programs, at best, will continue to be subverted by systemic corruption and, at worst, will fail.”How will the new strategy address this existential threat to the mission in Afghanistan that has proven resistant to previous anti-corruption and good governance efforts and possibly wasted billions of dollars in American funding? 4, The United States has spent approximately $70 billion since the start of FY 2002 for training and equipping the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces (ANDSF). The SIGAR’s February 2016 report identified five major challenges confronting U.S. efforts to develop the ANDSF further: limited oversight ibility, questionable force strength numbers, unreliable capability assessments, limited on-budget assistance capacity, and uncertain long-term sustainability. The oversight group’s April 30, 2017 reports stated that corruption remains the most significant obstacle to ANDSF progress. How does your administration plan to address these challenges and what does your administration estimate will be the continued cost to fund the ANDSF? 5, Stability in Afghanistan is largely dependent on their relationship with Pakistan and the Pakistani government's cooperation with intemational efforts against insurgent groups. On May 7, the Washingion Post reported on border skirmishes in the Kandahar region between the Afghan and Pakistani militaries that resulted in causalities and highlights rising tensions between the countries. What is being done to address concerns about the Pakistani relationship with insurgeney groups and how will your strategy work to ensure that friction between Pakistan and ‘Afghanistan do not undermine our efforts? appreciate your desire to see a resolution to this conflict in a manner that protects the American people from terrorist groups. I look forward to your response and to working further with your administration on this issue. Sincerely, Michael S. Lee United States Senate cc: The Honorable James Mattis, Secretary of Defense cc: General H.R. McMaster, National Security Advisor