Nicholson
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
January 27, 2016
The Obama administration has chosen Lieutenant General John Nicholson, Jr., a veteran of several war deployments to Afghanistan, as the next top U.S. commander in Kabul.
If Nicholson is confirmed in a vote by the U.S. Senate, he would succeed General John Campbell, who is expected to retire.
Nicholson is a 1982 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a career infantry officer.
He currently heads NATO’s Allied Land Command, headquartered at Izmir, Turkey.
He was first deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 when he was deputy chief of staff of operations for the international military command there.
In 2010, he was the deputy chief of staff for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
He also spent 14 months as the director of the Pentagon’s Afghanistan-Pakistan coordination cell.
The outgoing Campbell has been the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan since August 2014 and was due to be replaced.
Campbell is expected to complete his tour around the beginning of March.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters