SULAIMANI (ESTA) — U.S. Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller said the United States would reduce troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan by mid-January.
Miller, who read a prepared statement before TV cameras at the Pentagon, said the U.S. would reduce troop levels in Afghanistan from more than 4,500 to 2,500 and in Iraq from 3,000 to 2,500, according to AP.
He added that the United States remains ready to respond if conditions in both countries deteriorate.
“If the forces of terror, instability, division and hate begin a deliberate campaign to disrupt our efforts, we stand ready to apply the capabilities required to thwart them,” Miller said.
The plan will accelerate troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan in Trump’s final days in office, despite arguments from senior military officials in favor of a slower, more methodical pullout to preserve hard-fought gains.
The announcement came 10 days after U.S. President Donald Trump fired defense secretary Mark Esper, who had insisted on the need to keep 4,500 troops in Afghanistan to support the Kabul government while it negotiates a peace deal with the Taliban insurgents, AFP reported.
U.S. troops had already been cut by nearly two-thirds from about 13,000 this year, following the February 29 peace deal between the United States and the Taliban.
White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Tuesday that Trump hoped that all American troops would be home from Afghanistan and Iraq by May, Reuters reported.
“By May it is President Trump’s hope that they’ll all come home safely in their entirety,” he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned against the United States undertaking any quick changes in American defense or foreign policy, including toward Iraq and Afghanistan.
“It is extremely important here in the next couple of months not to have any earthshaking changes in regard to defense or for policy,” McConnell told reporters, according to Reuters.
“Precipitous drawdown [of U.S. troops] in Afghanistan or Iraq would be a mistake,” he added.
AP reported that the decision had already received a cool reception from some Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.
“I believe these additional reductions of American troops from terrorist areas are a mistake,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who is the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.
He added that the Taliban, whose hold on power in Kabul was destroyed when U.S. troops invaded the country in October 2001, have “done nothing – met no condition – that would justify this cut.”
Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, endorsed the Trump decision.
“Our primary goal has been, and continues to be, the prevention of transnational terrorists from launching an attack against the United States from Afghanistan,” Smith said.
“In order to contain the terrorist threat as we draw down our troop levels, it is critical that we coordinate the drawdown closely with our allies, as well as our partners in the Afghan government, to protect our interests and those of our allies in Afghanistan.”
