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Smaller Military Presence in Afghanistan Will Likely Focus on Trump’s Favored Pentagon Mission: Counterterrorism

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12.23.2018 at 02:27pm

Smaller Military Presence in Afghanistan Will Likely Focus on Trump’s Favored Pentagon Mission: Counterterrorism by Dan Lamothe and Pamela Constable – Washington Post

U.S. military and Afghan officials grappled Friday with President Trump’s order to pull nearly half of all American troops from Afghanistan, a move that will probably focus the war on one of the few military efforts the president says he cares about: counterterrorism.

 

The order to draw up withdrawal plans, issued during a White House meeting this week, would reduce the military presence from more than 14,000 troops to about 7,000, drastically scaling back Pentagon efforts to assist and support Afghan forces.

 

Afghan forces have suffered hundreds of fatalities per month this year, as a resurgent Taliban puts pressure on the Afghan government despite a marginally expanded Pentagon mission there 16 months ago.

 

U.S. military officials in Afghanistan and at the Pentagon have declined to comment on the withdrawal plans. Some U.S. officials close to the president, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they are trying to change the president’s mind…

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