The Pentagon announced that the U.S. military has dwindled down the number of troops still in Afghanistan to roughly 2,500.
Pentagon Makes Big Announcement
This supposedly went against a last-minute congressional prohibition that wanted to undermine President Donald Trump.
“Today, the United States is closer than ever to ending nearly two decades of war and welcoming in an Afghan-owned, Afghan-led peace process to achieve a political settlement and a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire,” the acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, said in a written statement, adding that 2,500 troops is enough to continue countering extremist groups in Afghanistan and training Afghan government forces.
“Continued fulfillment of these two complementary missions seeks to ensure that Afghanistan is never again used to harbor those who seek to bring harm to the United States of America,” Miller said.
Another Trump Accomplishment
In November, President Trump gave an order to reduce the number of troops in an unstable country. On Thursday it was announced that the troop levels in Afghanistan is at a 19-year low.
If Joe Biden does get into office, it is unclear if he will reverse the hard-work President Trump has done in this area.
WYMT reports:
President Donald Trump, who ordered the reduction in November, said Thursday that troop levels in Afghanistan had reached a 19-year low, although he did not mention a troop number. Last February his administration struck a deal with the Taliban to reduce American troop levels in phases and to go to zero by May 2021. It is unclear how the incoming Biden administration will proceed.
President-elect Joe Biden, who has advocated keeping a small counterterrorism force in Afghanistan as a way to ensure that extremist groups like al-Qaida are unable to launch attacks on the United States, faces a number of questions on Afghanistan. One is how and whether to proceed with further troop cuts.
Pentagon Vs Democrats
But despite the Democrat-led House wanting to keep troops involved overseas, the Pentagon sided with the president.
President Trump is not for endless wars and his supporters appreciate that. He has made quick statements in the past showing that he might want troops out of Afghanistan entirely.
“I will always be committed to stopping the endless wars,” he said, referring to U.S. wars that have dragged on in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq for much of the period since 2003.