WASHINGTON — President Trump’s nationwide safety adviser introduced on Wednesday that the US would lower its troops in Afghanistan to 2,500 by early subsequent yr.
However hours later, his boss contradicted him, suggesting a timeline as early as Christmas and prompting confusion amongst administration officers.
“We should always have the small remaining variety of our BRAVE Males and Ladies serving in Afghanistan residence by Christmas!” Mr. Trump posted on Twitter.
Requested concerning the tweet, a senior U.S. army official was silent for a second earlier than saying, “Oh my God!” The official stated he was not conscious of such a choice.
However Mr. Trump usually takes to Twitter to announce coverage, ceaselessly to the shock of these concerned. The president has forecast troop withdrawals, as an example, even with out apprising the Pentagon, as he did with Syria in 2018 in a transfer that prompted the resignation of Protection Secretary Jim Mattis.
The senior U.S. army official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate inside assessments, raised questions concerning the timing of the conflicting feedback on troop cuts in Afghanistan from Mr. Trump and his adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, which got here shortly earlier than the vice-presidential debate began.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. O’Brien forecast a discount to 2,500 service members from the 4,500 that officers had estimated would stay in Afghanistan by November. That quantity, administration officers calculated, would give the president the chance to attempt to inform voters that he had wound down America’s longest battle. However such a drawdown is more likely to be contingent on the end result of the election.
“When President Trump took workplace, there have been over 10,000 American troops in Afghanistan,” Mr. O’Brien stated throughout an occasion on the College of Nevada, Las Vegas. “As of right now, there are beneath 5,000, and that can go to 2,500 by early subsequent yr.”
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, additionally doesn’t favor a major troop presence within the nation. However ought to he win workplace, his administration is more likely to conduct a assessment of Afghanistan coverage.
Senior army officers have argued all yr {that a} fast withdrawal from Afghanistan would successfully doom the peace deal reached in February with the Taliban.
In current months, Mr. Trump has repeatedly voiced a need to go away the nation before the timeline specified by the Feb. 29 peace settlement with the Taliban, which stipulated that U.S. troops would withdraw in 12 to 14 months if the rebel group met sure circumstances.
The Pentagon has tried to work round a commander in chief who has frequently shocked the army along with his selections. Taliban and Afghan government-backed negotiators, for his or her half, are nonetheless struggling to advance intra-Afghan peace talks, though the 2 sides lately agreed on a broad code of conduct.
Because the discussions have continued, so too has the preventing. In a major tactical shift, the Taliban have carried out focused assaults, like bombings and assassinations, to exert strain whereas sustaining deniability for the violence.
In Doha, Qatar, the place the talks are going down, chief negotiators from either side have referred to as for endurance, however sticking factors stay, like which faculty of Islamic thought to make use of for resolving disputes.
Whereas each events largely agree on utilizing the Hanafi faculty of Islamic thought, one of many 4 main Sunni faculties that can also be the inspiration of the present Afghan Structure, they’re at odds on a formulation that doesn’t alienate different sects, significantly the Shia.
“Finally, the Afghans themselves are going to must work out an accord, a peace settlement,” Mr. O’Brien stated. He added, “We predict People want to return residence.”
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