WASHINGTON, Nov 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – The US will slash troop levels in
Afghanistan and Iraq to their lowest levels in nearly 20 years of war after
President Donald Trump pledged to end conflicts abroad, the Pentagon
announced Tuesday.
Rejecting concerns that precipitous drawdowns could give up all the US has
fought for, Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller said around 2,000 troops
would be pulled from Afghanistan by January 15.
Five hundred more would come back from Iraq by the same date, leaving
2,500 in each country.
The moves reflect Trump’s policy “to bring the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq to a successful and responsible conclusion and to bring our brave
service members home,” Miller said.
Miller said the US had met its goals, set in 2001 after the Al Qaeda
attacks on the United States, to defeat Islamist extremists and to help
“local partners and allies to take the lead in the fight.”
“With the blessings of providence in the coming year, we will finish this
generational war and bring our men and women home,” he said.
– Ending ‘endless wars’ –
The moves took the United States closer to disengaging from conflicts that
have blazed and smouldered through three presidencies with no end in sight
since 2001.
But critics said they risk appearing like a humiliating defeat, leaving
the original threat of Islamic extremist attacks intact.
The announcement came just weeks before Trump cedes the White House in the
wake of his November 3 reelection loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Amid criticism that Trump was acting abruptly since his defeat, White
House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said the troop cuts have been
in the works for some time.
“Four years ago President Trump ran on a promise to put a stop to
America’s endless wars. Today it was just announced at the Pentagon that
President Trump is keeping that promise to the American people.”
“By May it is President Trump’s hope that they will come home safely and
in their entirety.”
– Baghdad rockets –
Despite the risk of the moves and their impact on allies, neither Miller
nor O’Brien would take questions on the announcement.
It came 10 days after Trump fired defense secretary Mark Esper, who had
insisted on keeping 4,500 troops in Afghanistan to support the Kabul
government.
Esper had reduced US forces from about 13,000 following the February 29
peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban insurgents.
The two sides agreed that the Taliban would then negotiate a power-sharing
pact with the Afghan government, so that US troops would be gone by May 2021.
But until Esper’s removal, the Pentagon had argued that the Taliban had
not met pledges to reduce violent attacks on government forces, and that
further troop reductions would take pressure off them to do so.
In Iraq, Trump has also pulled back US forces amid dozens of rocket
attacks by Iran-allied groups on the US embassy and bases housing American
troops.
On Tuesday, a volley of rockets slammed into Baghdad’s Green Zone, where
the US embassy sits, breaking a month-long truce on attacks against the US
embassy.
Speaking on grounds of anonymity, a senior US defense official dismissed
concerns over the risk of resurgences by Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
“The professionals in the military service have agreed that this is the
right move,” the official said.
“Al Qaeda has been in Afghanistan for decades and the reality is, we’d be
fools to say they are going to leave tomorrow.”
– ‘Humiliating departure’ –
Allies and senior US politicians though saw US troop cuts as dangerous.
On Monday US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned the Afghan cuts
could lead to a debacle like the “humiliating American departure from
Vietnam” in 1975, and be a propaganda victory for Islamic extremists.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Tuesday that Afghanistan could return
to being “a platform for international terrorists to plan and organise
attacks on our homelands.”
Democratic Senator Jack Reed, who sits on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, accused Trump of a “cynical, chaotic approach” designed to burnish
his own legacy while leaving a mess to successor Biden.
But another senior Democrat, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam
Smith, said that after speaking with Miller, he saw the move as “the right
policy decision.”
“At the same time, this reduction must be responsibly and carefully
executed to ensure stability in the region,” he said in a statement.