Home United States USA — Political More U. S. Troops Will Leave Afghanistan Before the Election, Trump Says

More U. S. Troops Will Leave Afghanistan Before the Election, Trump Says

362
0
SHARE

The president’s assertion undercuts diplomats who have said withdrawals will depend on the Taliban’s commitment to its peace deal with the United States.
President Trump said that there would be fewer than 5,000 American troops in Afghanistan by Election Day in November, signaling that the United States would continue to withdraw troops from the country despite limited progress toward the start of peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. “We’re going down to 4,000, we’re negotiating right now,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Axios that was filmed on July 28 and released in full Monday night. The president’s statement seems to undercut U. S. diplomats’ repeated assertions that any further troop reductions in Afghanistan would be based on the Taliban’s commitment to the Feb.29 peace agreement signed with the United States. After the signing, the U. S. military is supposed to completely withdraw from Afghanistan in 14 months, a move that senior military officials have called “aspirational.” Mr. Trump’s drive to pull U. S. forces from war zones, especially Afghanistan, has often put the White House at loggerheads with the State Department, as American negotiators and military officials have tried to keep an already shaky peace process on track. In the interview, Mr. Trump called the U. S. involvement in the Middle East “the single biggest mistake in the history of our country.” The agreement with the Taliban “calls for additional conditions-based troop withdrawals as the peace process evolves,” Maj.

Continue reading...