Name: Trump to order further troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iraq before inauguration: Report
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Trump to order further troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iraq before inauguration: Report

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TRENDING:Follow UsQuestion of the DayPresident Trump is expected to announce as early as this week that the U.S. will withdraw additional troops from Iraq and just days before Inauguration Day in January.The looming drawdown, first reported by CNN, suggests that the Pentagon is ready to bring down the number of troops stationed in the region despite pushback from officials and experts warning that a U.S. presence is necessary to defend American allies and assets.According to early reports, the Defense Department has issued a “warning order” to commanders to start drawing up plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces in and Iraq to 2,500 each by Jan. 15 — five days before the presumed inauguration of Joseph R. Biden to the U.S. presidency.TOP STORIESA peace deal between the U.S. and the , struck in February, calls for an end to America’s military presence in exchange for guarantees will never again become a safe haven for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.The U.S. had about 12,000 troops in the country when the deal was signed. The number is now about 4,500. There are roughly 3,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.Administration officials have previously said the number of troops in will be down to 2,500 by early year, but Mr. Trump last month declared that he wanted all forces home by Christmas — far earlier than the mid-2021 deadline for full withdrawal laid out in the U.S.- deal.Neither the White House nor Pentagon have yet formally commented on the reports, but one Republican ally on Capitol Hill is applauding the anticipated announcement.“It’s time to bring our troops home from and Iraq,” tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona Republican. “I’ve encouraged President @realDonaldTrump to finish what he has courageously started over the past 3+ [years]: stopping America’s endless wars and bringing our brave men and women home.”Others, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, are cautioning against an early exit.“The consequences of a premature American exit would likely be even worse than President Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011, which fueled the rise of ISIS and a new round of global terrorism,” Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said on the Senate floor.&nbsp;“It would be reminiscent of the humiliating American departure from Saigon in 1975,” he continued.The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, also issued a rebuke of the expected plans.“A premature U.S. withdrawal would not only jeopardize the Afghan government’s ability to negotiate, but would endanger U.S. counterterrorism interests,” the Texas Republican said in a statement.“We need to ensure a residual force is maintained for the foreseeable future to protect U.S. national and homeland security interests and to help secure peace for .”Monday’s report comes just days after Mr. Trump’s new acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller called for an end to the era of “perpetual war” and to bring American troops home.Mr. Miller, a military veteran and counterterrorism official who was tapped for his new post after the abrupt firing of Mark Esper last week, made it crystal-clear that he shares Mr. Trump’s view that “endless wars” abroad are not in America’s interest.“We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought,” he wrote in a memo over the weekend. “All wars must end. Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it’s time to come home.”Mr. Miller did not explicitly mention , but it’s clear that is the administration’s top priority in terms of troop withdrawals.The accelerated withdrawal, however, contradicts the guidance from top Pentagon brass, including Gen. Frank McKenzie, who leads U.S. forces in the Middle East.Earlier this year, Gen. McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, told a congressional panel that “conditions on the ground” will dictate the number of U.S. forces on the ground in .At the time, Gen. McKenzie said that the level of violence was too high to carry out a further drawdown.Last month, the U.S.’ top diplomat for peace negotiations with the and Afghan government warned of “distressingly high” levels of violence that remains in the country.Although the updated pullout plan has assured some military leaders that a level of counterterrorism forces will be able to remain in the region and provide additional time to remove critical equipment from the countries, skepticism remains that the ambitious timeline may not be logistically attainable.“We’re not going to leave anything behind that somebody could use against us in another time and another place,” Gen. McKenzie said in September. “So that’s actually a huge logistics effort and it is continuing now.”Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC..&nbsp;Click to Read Moreand View CommentsClick to Hide

TRENDING:Follow UsQuestion of the DayPresident Trump is expected to announce as early as this week that the U.S. will withdraw additional troops from Iraq and just days before Inauguration Day in January.The looming drawdown, first reported by CNN, suggests that the Pentagon is ready to bring down the number of troops stationed in the region despite pushback from officials and experts warning that a U.S. presence is necessary to defend American allies and assets.According to early reports, the Defense Department has issued a “warning order” to commanders to start drawing up plans to reduce...

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Lauren Toms

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Trump to order further troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iraq before inauguration: Report

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