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7000 US Troops to leave Afghanistan
by ned - Business Insider (Oz) Monday, Dec 24 2018, 7:12pm
international / prose / post

The no-win war in Afghanistan appears to be grinding Washington into submission. Hot on the heels of Trump's Syria withdrawal, Trump ordered a massive reduction of the US troop presence in Afghanistan; it appears that half the occupation force -- 7000 troops -- is to return home either for redeployment, most likely, or for other political reasons, namely, Trump is desperate to appease his support base as other forces close in to unseat his presidency. Though informed opinion, considering war hawks Bolton and Pompeo are advising Trump, would indicate that things are not what they appear to be. A possible aggressive engagement is either planned for Ukraine and/or Iran -- we shall see.

Trump has ordered more than 7,000 US troops to leave Afghanistan
by Ryan Pickrell

President Donald Trump has ordered the immediate withdrawal of more than 7,000 US troops from Afghanistan, according to multiplereports, citing defence officials.

In what appears to be the first major step toward ending America’s involvement in a war fought for nearly two decades, the president has decided to cut the US military presence in Afghanistan in half, The Wall Street Journal reported. There are currently roughly 14,000 American service members in the war-torn country.

News of the withdrawal comes just one day after Trump declared victory over ISIS and announced the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, a move that reportedly drove the president’s secretary of defence to resign from his position Thursday.

“I think it shows how serious the president is about wanting to come out of conflicts,” one senior U.S. official told The WSJ. “I think he wants to see viable options about how to bring conflicts to a close.”

Another official told The New York Times that the Afghan forces, which have suffered unbelievably high casualties, need to learn to stand on their own, something senior military leaders have suggested they may not yet be ready to do.

US military leaders, most recently Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, have characterised the war in Afghanistan as a “stalemate” with no end in sight. A total of 14 American service members have died in Afghanistan this year, six in the last two months alone.

US troops our both training, advising, and assisting Afghan forces and carrying out counterterrorism operations against regional terror groups, like ISIS and Al Qaeda. In September of last year, Trump ordered the deployment of an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan.

The decision to reduce the number of US troops in country to roughly half their current levels was reportedly made at the same time Trump decided to withdraw from Syria.

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https://www.businessinsider.com.au/us-troops-leaving-afghanistan-numbers-reports-2018-12