Reports over the weekend that President Trump plans to announce within days that 4,000 U.S. troops will be brought home from Afghanistan have brought no official comment from the Pentagon.
On Saturday, NBC News reported that the plan would reduce the current force levels from about 13,000 to fewer than 9,000. It was followed by a report later from CNN citing an unnamed official affirming the president’s intention.
But the Pentagon has neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
“U.S. Forces-Afghanistan has not received orders to reduce troop levels in Afghanistan,” according to a statement from U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “We remain fully committed to the Resolute Support mission and our Afghan partners, and focused on our key objective: ensuring Afghanistan is never again used as a safe haven for terrorists who threaten the United States, our allies, or our interests.”
Trump has made no secret of his desire to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan, telling the Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox Radio in August, “We’re going down to 8,600, and then we make a determination from there as to what happens.”
But Trump also said the United States would maintain a military presence in Afghanistan to ensure it does not become a launching point for attacks against America. “We’re going to always have a presence, and we’re going to have high intelligence, and I will put this word out, and I’ve already said it, but if they ever did anything from Afghanistan, we will come back with a force like they’ve never seen before.”
That is essentially what Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Congress last week.
“We’ve got to make sure that Afghanistan never becomes again a safe haven for terrorists to strike the United States,” Esper testified before the House Armed Services Committee. “Our commanders, I’ve spoken to … feel that we could reduce our force presence there and still be able to conduct that mission.”
Read more from our senior writer on defense and national security in today’s edition of Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense.
