US service member killed in Afghanistan, military says
 

US service member killed in Afghanistan, military says
BY: Lucia I. Suarez & Lucas Tomlinson - Fox News - 7-13-19
RE: https://www.foxnews.com/world/us-ser...ed-afghanistan

President Trump weighs decision to pull all US troops from Afghanistan
As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continues peace talks with the Taliban, he says the U.S. is not ready to withdraw troops at this time from Afghanistan; Lucas Tomlinson reports from the Pentagon.

A U.S. service member died early Saturday morning while deployed in Afghanistan, military officials said.

The NATO-led Resolute Support mission gave no further details and withheld identifying the service member, pending notification to next of kin.

This death marks the 10th U.S. service member to be killed in combat in Afghanistan this year. It comes following seven founds of U.S.-led peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he wants to see a deal worked out by September 1.

On Thursday, President Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. military’s next top officer said it would be a “strategic mistake” for U.S. troops to pull out of the Middle East country prematurely. Currently, there are about 14,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan, down from a high of 100,000 in 2011.

“I think it is slow, it’s painful, it’s hard – I spent a lot of my life in Afghanistan – but I also think it's necessary,” Army Gen. Mark Milley said at this confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Trump recently told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that he wanted to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, but said he understood the risks of doing so, calling the country the “Harvard of terrorists.” The president indicated he would be open to leaving some “intelligence” forces behind if a deal can be reached with the Taliban.

Before resigning in December, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Bret Baier at the Reagan Library in California if the U.S. pulled its forces from Afghanistan there would be more terrorist attacks against the United States.

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Personal note: And he's perfectly right - it's understood to mean that any sign of weakness will influences the terrorist resolve.

Boats