Trump plans to withdraw more than 5,000 US troops from Afghanistan
By: Gabriel Dominguez - London - Jane's Defense Weekly - 8-30-19
RE:
https://www.janes.com/article/90757/...om-afghanistan
US President Donald Trump has announced plans to reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan by more than 5,000, but stressed that Washington will maintain a troop presence in the Central Asian country even if a peace deal with the Taliban militant group is reached to end the almost 18-year-old conflict.
“We’re going down to 8,600 and then we make a determination from there as to what happens,” Trump told Fox News Radio’s ‘The Brian Kilmeade Show’ on 29 August, without specifying when the drawdown would begin.
“We’re going to keep a presence there. We’re reducing that presence very substantially, we’re going to always have a presence, and we’re going to have high intelligence,” added Trump, warning that “if they ever did anything [against the US] from Afghanistan, we will come back with a force like they’ve never seen before”.
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Personal note: Ever notice how almost every week Trump states we are pulling out troops from Afghanistan and not long after we are sending more troops to Afghanistan? Why doesn't he just say we are rotating them in an out - rather than make it sound like we adding to? It's a little bewildering at times to read all these movements and withdraws?
Boats