Defense Secretary Gives Green Light to Begin Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that he has given the green light to the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan to begin withdrawing American troops from the region, in a showing of “good faith” after the U.S. signed a historic peace deal with the Taliban on Saturday.
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, “has my OK, approval” to begin pulling troops out of the war-torn country, Esper said during a press briefing at the Pentagon.
“We are going to show good faith and begin withdrawing our troops,” the Pentagon chief said. “My instruction to the commander was: ‘Let’s get moving. Let’s show our full faith and effort to do that.’”
The Pentagon aims to reduce U.S. troops in Afghanistan from the current number of 12,000 to 8,600 in 135 days. That process will start “within 10 days,” Esper said.
A full withdrawal will follow in 14 months provided the Taliban does not breach the peace deal.
“This is going to be a step-by-step process, and we’ll evaluate each day,” Esper said, adding that the U.S. expects to see violence in Afghanistan “decrease over time as we move forward.”
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cautioned that the peace agreement does not necessarily mean “that there’s going to be an absolute cessation of violence in Afghanistan, that is probably not going to happen.”
On Monday, reports came that fighting had broken out again between the Taliban and Afghan security forces. The Taliban also on Monday continued to refuse to participate in talks with the Afghan government.
President Trump has made bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan a priority for his administration and announced last August that the number of troops stationed there would be slashed dramatically. The announcement provoked stern warnings from both Democrats and Republicans, who warned that such a withdrawal was premature for the U.S. presence in the country, which has been roiled by conflict for the last 18 years.
“We’ve been there for 19 years. We’re really serving as policemen,” Trump said. “We could win Afghanistan in two days or three days or four days if we wanted, but I’m not looking to kill 10 million people.”
