Ongoing US-Taliban peace negotiations, designed to end the 18-year
Afghan War, has a new proposal, with the Pentagon having finally offered
a formal plan for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan.
As with the usual Pentagon plans, there seems to be reticence toward
actually doing this in a timely fashion. The plan reportedly would have
half of the 14,000 US troops leaves Afghanistan within a matter of
months, but then the rest would stay for as long as five years.
The end of the five years would see not only all US troops out of Afghanistan,
but also NATO troops. It is said to enjoy support within NATO and among
administration officials. It’s not clear what the Taliban’s position
is, however.
And that might be a tough sell for the Taliban. After resisting a US
occupation for 18 years, the Taliban’s demand is to get the US out of
the country, and while the logistics of that might take awhile, five
years is a very long time.
If anything, such a long time is likely to raise fears that the Pentagon
is dragging its feet specifically to give officials time to change
their minds and dishonor the deal, and keeping thousands of troops
inside Afghanistan means Trump, or his successor, could end up resuming
the war.
Pentagon Plan Would Have US Troops Out of Afghanistan Within Five Years
Half of US troops could be withdrawn within a matter of months
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
Join the Discussion!
We welcome thoughtful and respectful comments. Hateful language, illegal content, or attacks against Antiwar.com will be removed.
For more details, please see our Comment Policy.
