Mattis Drops the Hammer on the Taliban, Hits Them Right Where It Hurts

The U.S. has been in a long battle to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, but now Secretary of Defense James Mattis and the Trump administration are taking a different approach.
In October, Mattis appeared on Capitol Hill to announce he had been given the power to reconsider the rules of engagement against the Taliban. Mattis has made a key change, according to Military Times, as U.S. forces will no longer be required to be in contact with enemy forces before opening fire.

Details of the rules of engagement are generally not discussed with the public. However, the news expands on President Donald Trump’s previous statement on his Afghanistan strategy in which he said he would “expand authorities for American armed forces” to combat terrorism.

Last week, we saw what the change would allow as U.S. forces gave the Taliban a brutal wake-up call. In the first use of that expanded authority, Afghan A-29s and U.S. B-52s and F-22s took out opium processing facilities, which fund the Taliban’s operations, during a series of airstrikes.

Defense News reported:

The operation marked the first use of the F-22 to conduct airstrikes in Afghanistan. The highly advanced stealth fighter has capabilities that exceed what should have been necessary to destroy a Taliban target, raising questions as to why that platform was selected.

Watch the damage done by the airstrikes:
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