The former top US commander in Afghanistan says withdrawing up to half the 14,000 American troops serving there would reduce the incentive for the Taliban to negotiate a peace deal after more than 17 years of war.
Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal says the US has “basically traded away the biggest leverage point we have.” McChrystal’s comments come in response to reports that President Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to develop plans to withdraw thousands of American troops by next summer.
The US and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in 2014, but American and allied troops remain, conducting strikes on the Islamic State group and the Taliban and working to train and build the Afghan military.
“If you tell the Taliban that we are absolutely leaving on date certain, cutting down, weakening ourselves, their incentives to try to cut a deal drop dramatically,” McChrystal said on ABC’s “This Week.”
— AP
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