Wednesday, November 18, 2020

How Will Cutting U.S. Troop Numbers In Afghanistan Put Joe Biden In A Tough Position?

DW: Afghanistan: Cutting US troops could put Joe Biden in a tough position 

Experts told DW a hasty US troop cut in Afghanistan will give Joe Biden less leverage over the Taliban, and may jeopardize the ongoing peace process. The planned reduction comes as the militant group increases attacks. 

US President Donald Trump is expected to reduce the number of US troops in Afghanistan from around 5,000 to 2,500 by the time President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20. 

By doing so, Trump is seeking to deliver on his promise of bringing US soldiers home from the longest conflict in US military history. 

Earlier this year, the US and the Taliban signed a peace deal signed in Doha, which called on the Taliban to cut ties with terrorist groups and engage in direct dialog with the Afghan government. 


WNU Editor: A President Biden will not be put in a tough position if US soldiers are cut from Afghanistan in the next 8 weeks. After-all .... he can always send them back, which I predict will happen.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is it a problem that the Taliban attack us while we negotiate peace?

Why is it a problem that the Taliban will renege on any peace deal?

This is normal.

This is acceptable.

Pakistan does it all the time and official Washington and the babbling buttholes of the press doe not call them out on it.

Complaining about the speck (Taliban) is just that complaining. The Swamp Creatures and the intelligentsia won't talk about won't even discuss the log (Pakistan) in their eyes.

Maybe it is because the Awan Brothers got the dirt on the Democrat House of Representatives. 2 out of 3 fled to Pakistan and our ally is not extraditing them. Is that one of the reason we do not call Pakistan out> Other than the normal moral cowardice and incompetence?

B.Poster said...

While Biden certainly can put the troops back in, I think, for better or worse, this is more about optics. Should president Trump's legal options prevail then he simply continues this particular sound policy. If, as is appears most likely, these legal options fail then Biden becomes president.

Trump and his team are running two tracks here. 1.) It appears there was much fraud that benefited team Biden. Was it enough to alter the result and can it be proven? Given this situation, the legal options are certainly worth pursuing. I'm pretty sure if the roles were reversed, the Democrats would be doing what Trump is doing. I've also noticed the Republican leadership support for Trump, while tepid and sometimes given hostile neglect by them, they aren't actively trying to force him to stand down. Should these legal options succeed he remains president. 2.) In the likely event that legal options fail, he is positioning himself to run again in 2024 or to be the "kingmaker" who selects the next Republican nominee for POTUS. This is where the withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan also works to his advantage. For Biden to send them back in creates bad optics as the American people are overwhelmingly against these continued operations. Trump and his team can position themselves as the ones who were on track to ending this quagmire and will be able to use this during the next presidential run.

Off topic but removing the forces and then putting them back in is an incredible way to further crush the morale of our military personnel. IMHO Trump's two biggest mistakes were 1.) assuming people like chump little Jimmy Mattis, Fauci, Birx, and various other officials were acting in the best interests of the American people and/or the groups of people they lead. They aren't and they weren't. 2.) Agreeing to go along with Fauci and Birx on the "lockdowns" which stems from his first mistake.