1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, fourth Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, view as CH-47 Chinook helicopters circle above throughout a dust storm at Forward Operating Base Kushamond, Afghanistan, July 17, throughout preparation for an air attack objective.
U.S. Army picture
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon stated Monday that it has actually not chosen whether to withdraw U.S. soldiers from Afghanistan, as Washington thinks about a possible end to America’s longest war.
“Everybody here is mindful of looming deadlines,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby informed press reporters throughout a press rundown. “And I cannot today sketch out for you what specific planning is going on when there hasn’t been a decision made yet about future force posture in Afghanistan,” he stated.
In February 2020 the United States brokered a handle the Taliban that would introduce a long-term cease-fire and minimized even more the U.S. armed force’s footprint from around 13,000 soldiers to 8,600 by mid-July in 2015.
By May 2021, all foreign forces would leave the war-weary nation, according to the offer. There have to do with 2,500 U.S. soldiers presently in the nation.
Last month, the world’s most effective military alliance fulfilled to talk about a range of obstacles dealing with the 30-member group. High on the program was the course forward in Afghanistan. NATO signed up with the global security effort in Afghanistan in 2003 and presently has more than 7,000 soldiers in the nation.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated the alliance will continue to examine the scenario on the ground in Afghanistan.
“Our objective is to make certain that we have an enduring political contract that can make it possible for us to leave in a manner that does not weaken our primary objective which is to avoid Afghanistan from ending up being as soon as again a safe house [for terrorists],” Stoltenberg stated.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin informed press reporters on the heels of the NATO conference that the U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan would be contingent on a decrease of violence in the nation.
“The violence must decrease, now,” Austin stated, in his very first press rundown with press reporters. “I told our allies that no matter what the outcome of our review, the United States will not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan,” he stated, describing the virtual NATO conferences.
“There will be no surprises. We will consult each other, consult together and decide together and act together,” Austin stated of the NATO-led objective.
Read more:Â Biden ought to keep U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan past May due date, study hall states
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have actually cost U.S. taxpayers more than $1.57 trillion because Sept. 11, 2001, according to a Defense Department report. The war in Afghanistan started 19 years earlier and has actually cost U.S. taxpayers $193 billion, according to the Pentagon.
