US Withdrawing Thousands of Troops From Iraq and Afghanistan

| September 10, 2020

The top U.S. general for the Middle East says the Trump administration will pull thousands of troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan by November.

The United States will pull thousands of troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan by November, the top American commander for the Middle East said Wednesday, as President Donald Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to get America out of “endless wars.”

During a visit to Iraq, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said the reduction in Iraq — from about 5,200 troops to about 3,000 — reflects the Trump administration’s confidence in the ability of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces to handle the militant threat from the Islamic State group.

Later, McKenzie said troop levels in Afghanistan would drop to 4,500 by November. He made the statement in a telephone call with a small group of reporters, according to officials at his Central Command office.

“We’re on a glide slope to be at 4,500 by the November time frame — October, late October, November time frame,” he said, according to a transcript made available by his office. He said the path to 4,500 would be determined in part by the military’s ability to get equipment out of the country.

Promises made, promises kept. Jeff LPH 3 helped with another excellent tip.

Source; US World and News

 

 

Category: 2020 Election, Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Guest Link, Iraq, Politics

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Graybeard

This appears to be a better-planned withdrawal – and are we taking the time, this time, to not leave gear that the local warlords can “liberate”?

Slow Joe

Wait a minute.
Didn’t Obama withdraw from Irakkk in 2012?

5th/77th FA

No Slow Joe, oblowme allowed Irakkk to attack him in the rear…and we’re not sure if they have withdrawn yet.

‘Bout damn time. If Bush the Oneth and Colin Powell had of listened to The Bear and let the 24th Mech keep rolling back in ’91, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Seems if I recall some of our Compatriots here were in that part of the fracas. And have gone back time and time again. Enough is enough. G. Washington and Von Steuben turned a bunch of farmers into a trained fighting force, with little or no resources during the Winter at Valley Forge, that took on and ultimately defeated the finest Army known to the world at that time. How long we been “training” these people? How many wasted lives and shed American Blood? And how much has it cost the American Taxpayer?

GTFO…and leave nothing behind! Well, maybe a smoking hole where we blew what we couldn’t move in place.

Harry

Somewhere, somebody made the point that Trump is the first president since Carter that did not send troops to war – a good thing. He’s untangling these messes and to me thats just one of the one thousand reasons he’s getting my vote again this November.

11B-Mailclerk

I suspect that won’t last. Someone will do something horrific and stupid, and even Trump will decide a smackdown is required.

I hope to be wrong.

Of course, he may decide -not- to send troops. In which case we may have some sudden air pollution events, and maybe a need for extra iodized salt.

Let sanity prevail.

A Proud Infidel®™

We’ve done what we went there to do and it’s time for us to go. I’ve done a tour there myself and a number of the people in that godforsaken hellhole cannot be made civilized.

Ex-PH2

If the Middle East can’t manage its own defenses, then why do we have to do it for them?

Glad we’re moving out. The money for that could be spent on more relevant things.

George V

Ultimately, this will end with the Taliban running Afghanistan again. There’s no other possible outcome.

We need a new foreign policy and national security model in these days of terrorism, maybe better described as warfare sponsored by non-government organizations. We went into the Af because of 9/11 and deposing the Taliban gov’t was considered just punishment. We were then stuck with nationbuilding in a nation where not enough people wanted to it be built.

The Talibs are not a normal government of a state, they are a more like an NGO. How do you get an NGO to surrender? I don’t think you can. You would have to destroy them totally. Can you destroy them totally? The Soviets tried against the Mujaheddin and failed. We’ve spent almost twenty years trying to get the Afghan gov’t to effectively fight the Talibs without success.

So, what’s the better strategy? God forbid there’s another 9/11 type attack what do we do?

After 9/11 should we have just bombed the crap out of the Taliban? Or pulled out after we set up the new Afghan gov’t and said “Don’t harbor anyone like Al-Qaeda who attacks us again!”? Written them a strong letter?

George V

Adding to my own post – the reason for a new strategy is that is burns my gut that we lost so many to pursue what is a lost cause.

Slow Joe

I agree we need to change our policies.

Do we have the technology and the resources to identify all the individuals involved in a terrorist attack and pick them up or take them out without a full out war?

Regime change in the middle east has always come back to bite us in the ass. Iraq was pacified under Saddam Hussein, and now Iraq is basically a puppet of Iran.

Of course the Shia majority would have turn the country friendly to Iran. I don’t understand why we expected anything different.

So yes, we need to change the way we react to terrorism. We need to develop the tools to make sure that all terrorists and their enablers are identified and taken out. That might help as a deterrence.

Muslim terrorists are willing to die to kill us, but their supporters, the people putting the money for jihad, not so much. If we can guarantee that those supporters will be brought to justice, the support will banish and the money is going to dry out.

11B-Mailclerk

Ruthless works. Run the costs up high enough for the leadership and they go annoy someone else.

But one has to do the needful, and some folks have no stomach for Victory.

We have beaten far more capable and dedicated fanatics. We out ruthlessed them.

rgr769

One thing you can say for the legions of ancient Rome, they knew how to do ruthless. And they didn’t have a hundredth of the resources and technology that we have.