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Old 11-28-2020, 11:10 AM
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Arrow Military experts say a U.S. troop withdrawal complicates conditions on the ground

Military experts say a U.S. troop withdrawal complicates conditions on the ground
By: Shirin Jaafari - The World News & The Week News - 11-28-20
Re: https://theweek.com/articles/951508/...ditions-ground

Photo link: https://images.theweek.com/sites/def...size=1200x1200

"It's time to leave Afghanistan." (But is it Really?!)

That's what the Pentagon's new acting leader, Chris Miller, wrote in a two-page memo to Defense Department staff on Nov. 13.

Miller went on to add: "We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end." (at the be hence of Donald Trumps orders).

Four days later, Miller announced a major troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia: "By Jan. 15, 2021, our forces, their size in Afghanistan will be 2,500 troops. Our force size in Iraq will also be 2,500 by that same date."

There are currently about 4,500 troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq. The administration also aims to pull out all 700 service members currently fighting in Somalia.

The news from Washington broke late at night for people in Afghanistan and Iraq, and many learned the next morning.

And while some say it's time for American troops to come home, Miller's announcement has been met with plenty of skepticism. Many U.S. military experts worry a hasty and uncoordinated troop withdrawal would leave local forces in a dangerous position in both Afghanistan and Iraq, where Americans help train and assist them. And some critics say that the move is political — and seems to have more to do with President Donald Trump's legacy than concern for Americans.

Javid Faisal, an adviser to Afghanistan's National Security Council, said the news wasn't a complete surprise since the Trump administration had already made remarks about pulling out American troops. Faisal said that the Afghan national defense and security forces have been defending the country since 2014 on their own.

"They are able to do it in the future, but they will need the support of the international community," he said, "for financial, training, and advising."

"The withdrawal should be a very responsible one to make sure that any decision that's being taken in this regard does not reverse us. Does not take us back to where we were 20 years ago, when there was al-Qaeda, when there was other insurgent groups," he added.

Many share this concern.

"It will be much harder to provide advice and training to Iraqi forces, which is the primary role that's going on right now," said David M. Witty, a retired U.S. Army colonel who served in Iraq, including after a major troop withdrawal by the Obama administration in 2011.

U.S. forces help the Iraqis fight ISIS, and they limit Iran's influence in Iraq, he said.

"The problem would be, you would basically be turning Iraq over to Iran. There's no other way to put it," Witty said.

Iran has created and supported a web of powerful militias in Iraq. A drawdown of U.S. forces would mean these militias could have more of a free hand in the country.

Meanwhile, the U.S. troop withdrawal in Afghanistan was to be conditional.

Last February, the Trump administration signed an agreement with the Taliban. The U.S. agreed to pull troops out in phases and only if the group met a series of conditions: that the Taliban reduces its violence, sits down with the representatives of the Afghan government, and cuts ties with al-Qaeda.

Retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus told The World that there is no indication that the Taliban has met any of these conditions.

"This [troop withdrawal] frankly undermines the efforts at the negotiating table because you're essentially giving the Taliban what they really want, having already pressured the Afghan government to release some 5,000 or so Taliban detainees," Petraeus said.

Petraeus added that a reduction of forces should always be conditions-based. His concern is that after the U.S. leaves, the Afghan security forces will no longer be able to maintain the security for major routes and cities.

Violence in Afghanistan increased as much as 50 percent in recent months as the Taliban was taking part in peace talks. In its quarterly report to the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said there were at least 2,561 civilian casualties this quarter, including 876 deaths, up 43 percent from the April to June period.

Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center in Washington, said that the Taliban wants to have complete power — and that it will have that opportunity if it just waits out the United States and focuses entirely on the fight.

Kugelman and other experts told The World that they sympathize with Americans who are weary of war and with families who have loved ones serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I think it's time to bring all troops home," Kugelman said, "but this is really the last opportunity you have to try to kickstart an admittedly fragile, but nonetheless, existent peace process, and yet you're whittling away your last elements of leverage by pulling all of these troops very suddenly without the Taliban having done anything first."

Can the U.S. send additional troops back to Afghanistan if needed?

Jonathan Schroden, director for the Center for Stability and Development at the CNA Corporation and a longtime military analyst, said it could get complicated.

"[The U.S.] would have to get the approval of the Afghan government in order to do that. The current Afghan government, I think, would agree to that type of arrangement, but I wouldn't want to presume that the U.S. could just do that because it's not a unilateral decision," he said.

Schroden said troop withdrawals take time. Flying personnel out of the country can be done quickly, but winding down big military bases is a different undertaking.

"If they were going to zero, I would say it would be a logistical nightmare to do that by January," he said, "to go to 2,500 is still going to be challenging because they're going to have to close a number of fairly sizable military installations."

Ultimately, Trump's decision to bring troops home, Kugelman, at the Wilson Center, said, is based on political goals. The election might be over, but the president is still thinking about his legacy.

"He wants to be remembered as the president who brought as many troops home," Kugelman said.

"But when we hear all this talk here in Washington about ending the war, it's important to remember that by bringing U.S. troops home, we're not ending the war. War may be ending for the U.S., but it's not going to end for the Afghans."

This article originally appeared at The World.

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Personal note: As much as we all want to see us leave - it just doesn't feel right! The Field Commander's & Generals know it's high risk - and all the efforts put into their actions and all their field personnel that were lost or injured on the field! Many US lives were lost and many wounded - sacrificed themselves - now only to see us leave? When they know the Taliban are just waiting for their opportunity to move in. The Stateside Generals & Personnel in Washington know this will happen. It's a very tough call and likely to have ramifications when we leave. It seems that no NATO personnel will step up and fill in for our retreat. Had we had better relations with our NATO partner's (if we still have any) - just maybe they could've been our relief and stepped in - when we pulled out?
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Boats
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