NEW YORK // Donald Trump’s supporters praised the US military’s use of its most powerful non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan, saying yesterday it sent a clear message to enemies around the world, even as his officials insisted it was deployed for purely local, tactical reasons.
The GBU-43B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, nicknamed the Mother of All Bombs (Moab), was detonated over a complex of caves and tunnels used by an ISIL affiliate in Nangarhar province, close to the border with Pakistan.
Afghan officials said 36 ISIL fighters were killed, raising questions about whether the return was worth its $16m cost.
US army general John Nicholson, the commander of American forces in the country, said the fighters were using bunkers to “thicken their defences”.
“It was the right time to use it tactically against the right target on the battlefield,” he said.
But analysts said there appeared to be no immediate reason why US forces in a country that has received scant attention from Mr Trump suddenly needed to step up their assault.
Instead, many commentators focused on what they saw as a shift to a more muscular, interventionist American foreign policy.
John Bolton, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations under George W Bush, said the powerful strike sent a clear message.
“I think when you combine this with the strike on the Syrian airbase last Thursday and Friday after the chemical weapons attack, the use of this bomb in Afghanistan. . I think they are definitely awake tonight in Pyongyang and Tehran wondering what’s coming to them,” he said.
After campaigning on a mix of isolationist and interventionist policies, Mr Trump has appeared to shift away from the “America First” position he declared in his inauguration speech.
Defeats at home over a travel ban and health care shake-up have seen him turn towards foreign policy.
Last week he ordered a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air field after US evidence suggested regime forces carried out a sarin gas attack in the province of Idlib.
At the same time, the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier strike group has been ordered into position 300 miles off North Korea as a warning to the pariah state not to proceed with an expected nuclear weapons test.
Although Mr Trump said he welcomed the strike on the ISIL tunnel complex he insisted he was not trying to send a message to North Korea or anyone else.
“It doesn’t make any difference if it does or not — North Korea is a problem, the problem will be taken care of,” he told reporters.
Military analysts said it was unlikely that Mr Trump had ordered the deployment of the Moab.
Since taking power he has devolved significant decision-making powers to commanders on the ground. His officials say they want to avoid what they saw as the prevarication of the previous administration.
Tom Spoehr, a retired Lieutenant General in the US army and director of the Centre for National Defence at the Heritage Foundation, said using the GBU-43B to collapse cave entrances made simple military sense.
“I’m told they had this weapon — at least one, maybe more — in Afghanistan for a while. So this was a tool that was in their inventory and they saw a target where the weapon would be appropriate and they used it,” he said.
US and local forces have been fighting the Afghan branch of ISIL since 2015.
It was set up by members of the Pakistan Taliban who had been based in Nangarhar for years.
At its height it had an estimated 3000 fighters but has since lost more than half its territory and now numbers no more than about 800, according to the Pentagon.
More than 400 air strikes have been carried out on the group so far this year. Last Saturday a US special forces soldier was killed fighting ISIL in Nangarhar.
Michael Wahid Hanna, a foreign policy expert at the Century Foundation, said a group that had shown no interest in overseas attacks and was far smaller than the Taliban made for an unlikely target for such a significant weapon.
“This is not a group that’s on the rise, it’s not ascendant,” he said. “It’s a problem but it’s not the primary problem in the country.”
Whatever the significance in Afghanistan, the use of the GBU-43B — announced in a Pentagon press release — made major headlines in the US. Rolling news networks broadcast non-stop coverage.
It was a reminder that the country had voted for a presidential candidate who promised America would start winning wars again.
During the campaign Mr Trump said he would “bomb the s***” out of ISIL.
Mr Spoehr said the use of such a devastating bomb against a hated enemy would play well with Mr Trump’s base.
“A lot of people are saying it’s about time,” he said. “I don’t think he was involved in the decision to use this weapon but people are looking for the United States to assert itself, to take a vigorous role and I think this is popular.”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
