WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th November, 2020) The Trump administration in its final months seeks to expedite American troop withdrawals from the middle East including a possible pullout of Afghanistan before Christmas, Axios reported.
Citing three people "familiar with the move," the website attributed a string of recent firings and appointments in Pentagon, including the replacement of Defense Secretary Mark Esper with Christopher Miller, in part to President Donald Trump's frustration over a slow pace of the process and his desire to accelerate it.
"A wave of firings at the Pentagon and the hiring of Ret. Army Col. Douglas Macgregor is in part a settling of Trump's personal scores - but senior White House officials also have made clear they want them more publicly to talk about getting out of Afghanistan by the end of the year," Axios quoted an unnamed official Wednesday.
Miller has appointed Macgregor, a vocal advocate of withdrawals from Afghanistan and Syria, as his senior adviser.
Last month, Trump tweeted that American forces will be out of Afghanistan by Christmas only to be disavowed by US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien who said that thousands of troops are "on path" to remain there into early next year.
After the US reached the deal with the Taliban opposition movement in February, the number of troops in Afghanistan was drawn down to 8,600 in July and another 4,000 troops are expected to leave in the fall. By early next year the contingent may be reduced to 2,500 servicemen.
Pentagon officials used to say that the United States is conducting "prudent planning" to withdraw all its military forces from Afghanistan by May 2021, though no specific orders have been issued so far.
