US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday urged US President Donald Trump not to accelerate troop reductions in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying it would give extremists a “big propaganda victory.”
Addressing reports that Trump was planning to announce within days sharp cuts to US forces in both nations, the Republican Senate boss said that the US would be “abandoning” partners.
He added that the move would leave room for the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan, and for the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda to rebuild.
Photo: AFP
“The consequences of a premature US exit would likely be even worse than [former US] president [Barack] Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq back in 2011, which fueled the rise of ISIS [Islamic State] and a new round of global terrorism,” McConnell said on the US Senate floor. “It would be reminiscent of the humiliating America departure from Saigon in 1975.”
McConnell spoke after reports said that the Pentagon had received directives to prepare to bring back another 2,000 US forces from Afghanistan and 500 from Iraq before Trump steps down on Jan. 20.
That would leave only about 2,500 troops in each nation, fewer than US military officials have said is enough to ensure stability.
Before he was fired on Monday last week, former US secretary of defense Mark Esper had insisted on keeping 4,500 troops in Afghanistan until the Taliban reduced its attacks on the Afghan government to show a commitment to peace talks.
The Pentagon did not confirm the reports, which said Trump could announce the withdrawals this week.
Trump entered office nearly four years ago pledging to end US wars abroad.
He has appeared determined to get close to that before he steps down, following his election loss to US president-elect Joe Biden.
He said last month that he wanted US troops home “by Christmas” and US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien refined that to mean the Afghan presence would fall to 2,500 as early as January.
McConnell, normally a close political ally of Trump, said that a rapid withdrawal would “delight the people who would wish us harm.”
“The spectacle of US troops abandoning facilities and equipment, leaving the field in Afghanistan to the Taliban and ISIS, would be broadcast around the world as a symbol of US defeat and humiliation, and a victory for Islamic extremism,” McConnell said. “It would hand a weakened and scattered al-Qaeda a big, big propaganda victory, and a renewed safe haven for plotting attacks against America.”
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