‘Home by Christmas’: Trump tweet upends Pentagon strategy in Afghanistan

“From a DOD perspective, we’re obviously excited that the peace negotiations have commenced,” a Department of Defense official told the Washington Examiner Thursday.

After months of delay, on Monday, the Taliban and the Afghan government began peace talks, but the reduction in U.S. troop levels was not yet planned.

“Our goal, our focus right now is to get the 4,500 by November,” the official said, describing planning that was in place before the president’s tweet.

“But the president’s is obviously very clear, and his intent is known. And now, the mechanisms are going to put that into play,” the official added.

U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan have been drawing down as part of a Feb. 29 peace agreement with the Taliban that called for a 14-month timeline for withdrawing troops from America’s longest war.

The Pentagon has been safely bringing the troop level down from 12,000 in February to some 8,600 in July in accordance with the agreement.

Currently, some 5,000 U.S. troops remain in the country, with the last troops expected to depart by May 2021.

U.S. and coalition forces continue to train Afghan Armed Forces to handle counterterrorism and security measures on their own. Meanwhile, the Taliban has adhered to an agreement not to attack U.S. and coalition forces, but they have repeatedly attacked Afghan forces, requiring the United States to come to their aid.

In a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing held just days after the 19^th anniversary of the start of the conflict in Afghanistan, Congress asked if forces were being removed too precipitously for the safety of Americans.

Massachusetts Democrat Stephen Lynch said security conditions had “deteriorated” in Afghanistan since the February agreement, and he quoted U.S. Central Command’s Gen. Frank McKenzie in noting that the escalation in violence was “not consistent with someone negotiating in good faith.”

The Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific affairs point man, David Helvey, stressed in the Sept. 22 testimony that the department’s aim was to prevent Afghanistan from ever again serving as a terrorist safe haven.

“The strategy prioritizes ending the war through a political process, acknowledging that there is no military solution to the conflict,” he said.

But he said the battle against terrorists is not yet over.

“We actively combat ISIS Khorasan al Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan,” he said. “Although these terrorists are severely degraded, continued pressure on them remains vital to ensuring that our homeland is never again attacked.”

During the testimony, Helvey said Defense Secretary Mark Esper had not issued orders to reduce military personnel below the 4,000-5,000 threshold.

“We are conducting prudent planning to withdraw it to zero service members by May 2021, if conditions warrant for the U.S. Taliban agreement,” he said.

On Thursday, national security adviser Robert O’Brien stated in a speech in Las Vegas that the U.S. troop level in Afghanistan would drop to 2,500 by the start of 2021. Trump raised the ante later that night, when he tweeted there should be no more troops by Christmas.

“We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!” the president wrote.

Since the 9/11 attacks, some 2,448 American service members have died in the conflict, and tens of thousands more have been injured.

In 2019, violence against American and coalition forces had gone down.

“The Taliban have shown that they have the capability to reduce violence to an acceptable level. They’ve done it in the past. We’ve seen that,” the defense official said.

“From DOD, we haven’t had anybody killed since before the agreement,” he added. “That’s noteworthy for us.”