‘US may trim over 1,000 troops from Afghanistan’
MUSCAT/KABUL : Even before any peace push-related drawdowns, the US military is expected to trim troop levels in Afghanistan as part of an efficiency drive by the new commander, a US general told Reuters on Friday, estimating the cuts may exceed 1,000 forces.
US President Donald Trump told Congress this month he intended to reduce US forces from Afghanistan as negotiators make progress in talks with Taliban insurgents. US Army General Joseph Votel, the head of the Central Command, said the decision to reduce some of the roughly 14,000 US forces in Afghanistan was not linked to those peace efforts, however. Instead, he said it was part of an effort by Army General Scott Miller, who took over the more than 17-year war effort in September, to make better use of US resources.
“This is something that he started as he got into the position here and was looking at how we (can) be as efficient and as effective as we can be on the ground,” Votel said in an interview during a trip to Oman.
Miller’s decision represents a reversal of sorts after years in which the U.S. military sought to slow or halt troop drawdowns under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, and previously lobbied for more troops under Trump.
GENERAL WON’T SAY US IS ‘WINNING’ IN SYRIA
The general leading US special operations forces has cautioned against talk of “winning” against the Islamic State group in Syria, where the jihadists are fighting to defend a last scrap of territory.
Gen Raymond Thomas, who heads US Special Operations Command, was asked at a hearing in the US Senate what winning in Syria would look like.
“I’d be hesitant to use the term winning, as opposed to the objective,” Thomas told the Armed Services Committee.
That “objective is to reduce the threat in that area and to be able to maintain persistent capabilities so that an external threat cannot emanate from that in the future,” he added.