New SecDef Advisor Wants US Troops Out of Afghanistan

Col. Macgregor has said the US should 'run' out of Afghanistan

The Pentagon confirmed with Axios on Wednesday that retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor has been hired as a senior advisor to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who replaced Mark Esper on Monday.

Macgregor has been outspoken in his belief that the US should immediately withdraw from Afghanistan. His appointment means President Trump’s Pentagon shake-up could lead to bringing troops home from conflict zones before January 20th, as sources have suggested to multiple media outlets.

In January, Macgregor told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that President Trump should fulfill his promise to end the war in Afghanistan:

“There is one man, only one man who can take decisive action and end this. His name is Donald Trump. He promised to do that a long time ago. He’s disappointed a lot of us because he hasn’t,” Macgregor said. “He could stand up tomorrow and pull us out, but he needs to send everyone out of the Oval Office who keeps telling him, ‘If you do that and something bad happens, it’s going to be blamed on you, Mr. President.'”

In a 2019 interview with Hill.TV, Macgregor said the US should “run” not walk out of Afghanistan. “Whatever we do, we just need to leave,” he said.

Macgregor has also called on Trump to withdraw from Syria. In 2018, Macgregor penned an Op-Ed for The National Interest titled, “The Case for Leaving Syria.”

President Trump nominated Macgregor to be the US ambassador to Germany, where Trump ordered a withdrawal of about 12,000 US troops, which would leave around 24,000 US troops in the country. But Macgregor was never confirmed to the position, and German officials are hopeful a Biden administration would not follow through with Trump’s plan.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.