US exit from Afghanistan ‘not what Army hoped for’
THE US withdrawal from Afghanistan is “not a decision we’d hoped for”, says the head of Britain’s armed forces. President Joe Biden announced this week that the remaining 2,500 American troops will be brought home by September 11 – 20 years after the al-Qaeda terror attacks triggered the War on Terror.
NATO confirmed US allies, including the UK, would begin withdrawing troops from May 1.
The last British combat soldiers left in 2014, but about 750 remain as part of the NATO mission to train Afghan forces.
Asked about Mr Biden’s move, Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter said: “It’s not a decision we’d hoped for but we obviously respect it.” But he added that Afghan forces could “easily hold it together”.
Gen Sir Nick went on: “The Afghan armed forces are really much better trained than one might imagine. We have invested a lot of effort in their officer academy.”