US military officials expect President Donald Trump to order an additional troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq, US media reported Monday.
CNN reported that the Pentagon has issued a “warning order” to commanders to begin making plans for the number of troops in Afghanistan at 2,500 through January 15.
There have been about 4,500 U. S. soldiers in Afghanistan and 3,000 troops in Iraq lately, and 2,500 are expected to be withdrawn in Iraq.
A NATO official also raised expectations of relief from between 1,500 and 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, Reuters news firm reported.
Trump fired his defense secretary, Mark Esper, and appointed other senior Pentagon officials last week after long-standing remarks that his priorities were being urgently addressed at the Defense Department.
These come with the end of Afghanistan’s 19-year commitment before the Christmas holidays in December, an ambitious purpose that the warring parties to the country’s longest war have welcomed.
On October 7, Trump said on Twitter, “We have the remaining small number of our BRAVE men and women stationed in Afghanistan until Christmas!”
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020
But a Republican senator warned that a quick withdrawal from Afghanistan could harm America’s allies and opponents.
“There is no American who does not need that the war in Afghanistan against terrorists and their facilitators has already won. But that doesn’t replace the existing selection that awaits us now. An immediate withdrawal of U. S. forces from Afghanistan would now harm our allies and delight – delight – the other people who wish us evil,” Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said in a Speech in the Senate, without directly criticizing TrumpArray.
The United States and Afghanistan warn of worrying degrees of violence by Taliban fighters and persistent ties between the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
It is these ties that triggered an intervention by the U. S. military in 2001 following the September 11 attacks through Al Qaeda. Since then, tens of thousands of Afghans and thousands of American and Allied troops have been killed in the confrontation in Afghanistan.
Some U. S. army officials, who set priorities for counter-terrorism combat in Afghanistan, have privately suggested that Trump pass 0 at this point and must keep troop ranks at around 4,500 at this time, Reuters reported.
The White House did not comment on the media reports.
Safety corps of workers and spectators at the site of an explosion along the look of the road in Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province capital, November 12, 2020 [Noor Mohammad / AFP] National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has already raised the option of a retirement, saying last month that the United States would fall to 2500 in early 2021, in comments overshadowed by Trump’s Christmas calendar.
Regardless of what Trump does, the Taliban, which are fighting the U. S. -backed government in Kabul, called on the United States to accede to a February deal with the Trump administration to withdraw U. S. troops until May, a matter of security guarantees.
Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, in a message to the U. S. military over the weekend, echoed Trump’s preference to end U. S. commitments by saying, “It’s time to go home. At home. ” But he wasn’t offering a calendar and under pressure he wants to end the fight opposing Al Qaeda.
The Taliban’s home to Al Qaeda leaders and the US special envoy for Afghanistan said the Taliban had not fulfilled their February promise to break ties with Al Qaeda.
“We are about to defeat Al Qaeda and its partners, but we will have to avoid our mistake beyond the strategy of not taking combat to the end,” wrote Miller, a former green beret and counterterrorism.
The National Directorate of Security said Mohammad Hanif of Karachi also had “close relations” with the Taliban.
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The explosion targeted a government checkpoint near the main gate of the Afghan capital.
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