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The new US Defense Secretary, Christopher Miller, said it could accelerate the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the Middle East, saying: “It is time to go home.”
“All wars must end,” said Miller, who was appointed acting defense minister by President Donald Trump on Monday, in his first message to the US military. He said the United States was determined to defeat al Qaeda 19 years after the 9/11 attacks, and was on the verge of defeating the group.
“Many are tired of war, I am one of them,” Miller said in a statement Friday, but posted early Saturday on the Defense Department website. “But this is the critical phase where we are shifting our efforts from a leadership to a supportive role,” he said. “Ending wars requires commitment and partnership. We rose to the challenge; we did our best. Now is the time to go home.”
Miller does not mention a specific US troop deployment, but the reference to al Qaeda seems to highlight Afghanistan and Iraq, where US troops are stationed after the 9/11 attacks. The former U.S. Special Forces officer and counterterrorism expert was named Pentagon chief after Trump fired Mark Esper. Trump, who lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election, has been pushing for US forces to withdraw from both sides since he took office four years ago.
Any such action must take place within 67 days before Biden takes office on January 20. Esper cut US forces in Afghanistan by nearly two-thirds after the February 29 peace deal between the United States and the Taliban.
But taking stock, he said he would keep 4,500 figures this month as the Taliban, negotiating with the government in Kabul, followed through on the promised reduction in violence. However, Trump insisted on continuing the cuts and wrote on Twitter that he wanted the troops to “go home before Christmas” on December 25. His national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said the goal is to cut it to 2,500 by February. But critics say it removes any obstacles to attacks by the Taliban, which continue amid little progress in its peace talks with the Afghan government.
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