Fresh off the US peace deal with the Taliban, troops should be starting to leave Afghanistan. With the coronavirus outbreak, however, quarantine procedures may be preventing many from returning to the US.
Pentagon officials say protecting the US force from the virus is the top priority, and some are suggesting that they’d be safer holed up in Afghanistan rather than returning to the US and facing the pandemic.
This probably isn’t a great argument, because officials had conceded in recent weeks that troops in Afghanistan had symptoms, and the number with coronavirus there is probably artificially low because the Pentagon lacked testing for the troops deployed there.
It might make sense for those exposed to the virus in Afghanistan to not be immediately returned to US bases, but slowing the pullout in general both risks the peace and makes little practical sense given the symptoms US troops have been reporting in Afghanistan.
Right, cause their bags were packed and they were waiting to go…
It doesn’t matter what the latest development is, it always is evidence to US officials that they should keep violating their side of whatever agreements they have made.
Any excuse to keep them there.
If they stay there, they’ve violated an agreement that they intended to. Taliban might renew attacks and were back to square one.
If they’re restricted to respective US bases, their not exposed to civilian populations.
Send them to Syria to milk it out for a month or two (sarc).
Any excuse to break any agreement they make. The “forked tongue” US is completely devoid of any honour and will continue to lie and cheat to serve their purposes.