The Afghan ambassador to the U.S. reminded President-elect Trump on Wednesday that maintaining U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is “as urgent as it was on Sept. 11, 2001,” and that plans should be based on needs on the ground and not troop numbers.
Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib, speaking at a Heritage Foundation event, pointed to successes the Afghan forces had in 2016 thanks to U.S. help and training, despite being “severely tested” by the Taliban. He said any messy, public political debates are “necessary growing pains” that are preventing the situation from devolving in a civil war.
Asked what he’d like to see differ in a Trump administration, Mohib said he’d hope the next president will create a plan for Afghanistan based on long-term goals rather than the desire to draw down to a set number of troops.
“I think we would like to move from numerical to condition-based,” he told the Daily Signal in a Facebook Live interview following his keynote remarks. “We want a discussion around … what kind of progress we want Afghanistan to have and what would be necessary to make this happen.”
President Obama announced this year that he would slow the drawdown from Afghanistan. The 9,800 U.S. troops in the country were expected to shrink to a force of just 5,500 by the end of 2016, but will now draw down to 8,400. The military has said it doesn’t expect to lose many capabilities despite the smaller force, since many administrative functions can be moved out of country and contractors can be hired to fill holes.
Mohib said that, because the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is still a priority and a bipartisan issue, “we’re not concerned about big changes” under Trump.
Neither candidate talked about any plan for future strategy in Afghanistan on the campaign trail.
