Tuesday 22 October 2019

First Syria, now is a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan next?

The US military don't know what's hitting them. They have troops based all over the world, but their commander-in-chief keeps trying to bring them home. First it was Syria, with the vast majority of the 1,000 troops now heading out of northern Syria across the border into western Iraq, leaving 100-200 behind to fly the flag. Now military planners are having to look at the possibility of Trump getting fed up with the stalemate in Afghanistan and ordering home all the 12,000 troops left there. They have started to make contingency plans so as not to be caught short if Trump suddenly announces by tweet that the Afghanistan mission is over, finished, kaput. The US military are adamant that while the security conditions on the ground remain as they are it would be unsafe, unwise and pretty outrageous if Trump were to reduce the number of troops below the 8,600 figure which they regard as the barest minimum, never mind a zero figure. But knowing Trump's propensity for making sudden decisions, the US military are looking at how they could phase a total withdrawal over a lengthy timetable. General Scott Miller, the US commander in Afganistan, will I am sure advise in the strongest terms that Trump must not do a Syria and leave Afghanistan for other nations to worry about. A premature withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan would hand the Taliban a gift and bring turmoil to the country. It is perfectly understandable for the American president to say to himself, "What the hell are we doing still in Afghanistan after 18 years and more than one trillion dollars spent? It's not on our border so let's go." But I'm afraid this is what the United States has to do and her loyal allies who have been in Afghanistan just as long. The US-led coalition troops cannot leave until there is a firm and verified ceasefire and a political treaty/agreement with the Taliban. This is likely to take many more months. When and if it does get signed, then the US can bring home a majority of the troops with dignity. Look what is happening to the US troops in northern Syria. They are leaving the country in convoys and the local Kurds are throwing stones and potatoes at them in disgust. What a shameful way to end an extraordinarily courageous mission. Very very sad. I don't want to see the same thing happening in Afghanistan!

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