TRUMP TWEET ON TROOP PULLOUT SPURS CONFUSION
Pentagon says it hasn’t gotten order to exit Afghanistan
President Donald Trump’s promise to abruptly pull all U.S. troops from Afghanistan generated confusion Thursday as the Pentagon indicated that it had received no orders to alter plans for a conditionsbased withdrawal and Afghan negotiators voiced concern that a hasty exit would intensify challenges to peace talks.
The president’s suggestion on Twitter that thousands of troops would depar t within less than three months injected a new element of uncer tainty into effor ts by diplomats and militar y off icials to usher nascent peace negotiations toward a potential settlement ending the nearly two-decade conf lict.
“We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women ser ving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday evening.
It was not immediately clear whether the president’s pronouncement signaled a lasting change in policy or constituted an appeal to voters weeks before the Nov. 3 election. Bring
ing back troops from costly overseas wars has been a central element of Trump’s foreig n policy since before his election in 2016, and Afghanistan, the site of the United States’ longest conf lict, has f ig ured chief among them.
A defense off icial, who like other off icials spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the Pentagon has not yet received orders to accelerate the troop reduction.
L aurel Miller, a former top diplomat who now ser ves as director of the International Crisis Group’s Asia program, said the announcement of an i mminent depar ture was likely to undercut diplomats suppor ting talks between Afghan government and Taliban negotiators in Doha, Qatar, now seen as the only viable option for ending the war.
“It’s very strange indeed to have the president of the United States say something out l oud and then have all the rest of us wondering if it really means anything,” she said.
A sudden withdrawal, she continued, “makes no sense in terms of U.S. national security or good negotiating practice. It only makes sense in a political context if you think that’s a selling point to voters.”
In Afghanistan, such a move would represent a signif icant depar ture from a separate deal the Trump administration struck earlier this year with the Taliban, in which U.S. off icials said they would remove all forces from Afghanistan by next May if the militants complied with cer tain conditions, including a reduction i n violence and the severing of all relations with al-Qaeda militants.
The Pentagon has declined to g ive a precise number for the current U.S. force in Afghanistan, but it i s expected to hit 4,500 next month.
Afghan government off icials have said they see no evidence that the Taliban has broken with al-Qaeda, and the l evel of violence has sharply i ncreased in the countr y recent months.
The Taliban applauded Trump’s tweet as “a ver y positive step as par t of the implementation of the agreement between the Islamic Emirate and the United States,” according to a statement by spokesman Z abiullah Mujahid. He said the Taliban would fulf ill its “commitments” under the deal.
But an Afghan off icial in Doha briefed on the talks said the tweet “cer tainly makes the Afghan Republic’s job more diff icult.” He said it is likely to make Taliban negotiators “more arrogant” and less willing to compromise on issues concerning human rights and civil liber ties.
Adding to the confusion, Trump’s tweet appeared hours af ter the national security adviser, Rober t O’Brien, said the U.S. force would be reduced to about 2,500 early next year. It was not immediately clear whether this plan was the same one Trump referenced.
“Ultimately, the Afghans themselves are going to have to work out an accord, a peace ag reement. . . . We think Americans need to come home,” O’Brien said in a speech at the University of Nevada, Reuters repor ted.