WASHINGTON — Newly appointed Pentagon chief Christopher Miller signals he could accelerate the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the Middle East, saying, “It’s time to come home.”
“All wars must end,” Miller, named acting defense secretary by President Donald Trump on Monday, says in his first message to the US armed services.
He says the US is committed to defeating al-Qaeda, 19 years after the September 11 attacks on the United States, and is “on the verge of defeating” the group.
“Many are weary of war — I’m one of them,” he writes in the message, dated yesterday but posted early today on the Defense Department’s website.
“But this is the critical phase in which we transition our efforts from a leadership to supporting role,” he says.
“Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it’s time to come home.”
Illustrative: US Army soldiers speak to families in rural Anbar on a reconnaissance patrol near a coalition outpost in western Iraq, January 27, 2018. (Susannah George/AP)
Miller doesn’t mention specific US troop deployments, but the reference to al-Qaeda appeared to single out Afghanistan and Iraq, where US troops were deployed after the September 11 attacks.
The former US special forces officer and counterterrorism expert was named to lead the Department of Defense after Trump fired Mark Esper.
Trump, who lost to Democrat Joe Biden in the November 3 election, has been pressing to pull US forces out of both countries since he came into office four years ago.
— AFP
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