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Thu, Mar

Trump Backtracks On Afghan Troops Withdrawal

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President Donald Trump has said a hasty US withdrawal from Afghanistan would leave a vacuum for terrorists to fill. He said his original instinct was to pull US forces out but had instead decided to stay and "fight to win" to avoid the mistakes made in Iraq.

He said he wanted to shift from a time-based approach in Afghanistan to one based on conditions on the ground, adding he would not set deadlines.

However, the US president warned it was not a "blank cheque" for Afghanistan.

"America will work with the Afghan government, so long as we see commitment and progress," he said.

The Taliban responded by saying that Afghanistan would become "another graveyard" for the US if it did not withdraw its troops.

President Trump has committed to stepping up the US military's engagement in Afghanistan, but details were few and far between.

He said his new approach would be more pragmatic than idealistic and would switch from nation building to "killing terrorists".

But he refused to get drawn on how many extra troops, if any, would be deployed and gave no timeline for ending the US presence in the country.

Washington is expected to send up to 4,000 additional troops, but Mr. Trump did not comment on this.

The president did, however, put pressure on neighboring Pakistan, warning that the US would no longer tolerate it offering "safe havens" to extremists - an accusation swiftly dismissed by a Pakistani army spokesman.

The decision to sustain US military engagement in Afghanistan is a marked departure from his pre-election rhetorics. Before his presidency, Mr Trump was not shy about criticising his predecessors on their Afghanistan policy. He previously supported pulling US troops out of the conflict, which began under President George W Bush in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.

He had tweeted in November 2013: “We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Their government has zero appreciation. Let's get out!”

Early on in his presidential campaign, however, he did acknowledge that US troops would have to stay in order to avoid the total collapse of the Afghan government.

And this long-awaited announcement came after a months-long review, with the president himself acknowledging that his original instinct to pull-out had been reversed after discussions with national security advisers.

 


Source: BBC

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