White House officials say President Trump will soon make an announcement of a withdrawal of 4,000 US troops from Afghanistan, with the troops to leave over the next few months. The Afghan government has confirmed that this is the case.
This announcement has been expected for some time, with Defense Secretary Mark Esper saying the drawdown would come with or without a peace deal with the Taliban. The US has paused the Taliban talks, so it appears it will be coming without a deal.
President Trump was said to be keen to have a troop reduction before the 2020 election from the sake of his campaign, and while the preference for many was to make this part of a deal ending the war, the US has struggled to keep itself in talks with the Taliban recently.
Officials say that they are confident that the war in Afghanistan can continue with the lower level of troops. The US strategy in Afghanistan is heavily based on airstrikes at this point anyhow, so ground troop levels have limited impact on day-to-day operations.
These 4K will probably be moved to Syria or Saudi unholy land.
Absolutely… I was just going to post that.
And they will be relocated to wherever Israel says they need to go. They sure as hell are NOT coming home to actually defend America or anything along those lines.
They are moving to “counter” Iran.
After all, Afghanistan was Bush/Obama’s war, and Trump needs a war of his own.
Bush started it and Obama did his surge. Trump followed Obama with a surge of his own. So doesn’t that make Afghanistan Bush/Obama/Trump’s war?
Yes.
Mmm, he deployed 7000 when he came in, another 3000 would put him where he was starting out.
They may ‘need’ to be ‘withdrawn’ into Iran. Amnesty International is screaming about ‘a duty to defend’ the revolting Iranian people.Trump, Boris Johnson and a few other western leaders could use a war of distraction.
The Deep State has been fighting Trump since before his election. He has been the most antiwar president in my long life. He turned most of the Republican party to non intervention. You guys are nuts.
This drawdown of troops is just Trump playing to his base. The sad part is that they will probably believe him. It is virtually impossible to get them to realize he hasn’t done anything to accomplish his promises. I noticed early on that all this turmoil with the Dems was just an excuse for not doing anything or anyone noticing. Maybe if we all stop voting they all will disappear.
I said the same about Russia-gate. No one notices anything being done, or not being done. The gift that keeps on giving.
Remember, the occupation of Afghanistan a business plan. It will end when the money is right.
Afghanistan is important to “US Interests” not only because of the estimated $1trillion worth of untapped lithium, copper and other precious metals but, more importantly, because it holds the only natural land-bridge connecting resource rich Central Asia and resource poor South Asia – which is why every superpower throughout history has tried to control the Khyber Pass, aka: where the Taliban currently live.
The US’s preferred way to dominate this area is the TAPI (Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India) oil pipeline. It was announced in early 2018 that construction would begin on the Afghanistan section of this connection pending a US / Taliban agreement:
-https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkmenistan-afghanistan-gas-pipeline/leaders-launch-start-of-afghan-section-of-tapi-gas-pipeline-idUSKCN1G70PU
“The project is expected to transport 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas a year along an 1,800 kilometer (1,125 miles) route from Galkynysh, the world’s second-biggest gas field, to Fazilka near the border with Pakistan in northern India… as well as providing energy, the pipeline would underpin development of road, rail and communications networks.” (above link)
The US wants this oil to be sold to India and Southern China in US dollars only and for Iran and Russia to NOT make these sales.
The fact that the war hasn’t ended yet has to do with the inability of US and Taliban negotiators to come to an agreement on finances and security for the project. Once an agreement is in place the war will have achieved its purpose.
Fine with me.