Drawdown
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Sure - but part of a withdrawal is planning for and managing what happens afterwards.
Taking out troops is the easy part of the promise. If you never had to manage the situation afterwards, why not bring all our troops home.
Presumably there's a reason Trump didn't withdraw over the last 4 years.
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Presumably because as the article said 'conditions were not right'. I'm not sure quite what that means. We are not withdrawing all our forces, nor are our allies to the best of my knowledge.
Afghanistan is 4500->2500, I think Iraq is 500 fewer but I don't know the base.
I'm a little skeptical on the rationale though. Presumably it's closer to what Jolly said, a campaign promise.
But - it also doesn't seem like there's a path to defeat the Taliban. So, perhaps this is just inevitable.
FWIW, McConnel said this was a mistake.
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HR McMaster's take:
I think it really goes beyond just the paltry number of troops, right? These are historic low numbers of troops anyway in both Afghanistan and Iraq. And — but I think it's really the overall strategy. I mean, essentially, in Afghanistan, Nick, what we have done is, we have partnered with the Taliban against the Afghan government.
I mean, the Afghan government officials are sitting across the table from the Taliban in Doha. And what they're hearing is, hey, we defeated the world's greatest superpower. Why are we even talking to you? We're going to dictate the terms.
pbs.org/newshour/show/mcmaster-u-s-has-partnered-with-the-taliban-against-the-afghan-government
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Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
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