Military officers who had turn into pissed off with coping with Mr. Trump, an unpredictable president who often blindsided them with tweets stating that American troops can be coming dwelling from one army engagement or one other, mentioned the possibility to cope with a president who would truly observe a coverage course of earlier than saying a choice was a welcome one. But in addition they knew from the beginning that the strategies they’d employed with Mr. Trump had been more likely to not work.
The Defense Department had fended off an effort by Mr. Trump to abruptly pull out all remaining U.S. troops by final Christmas. Mr. Trump ultimately ordered the power minimize roughly in half — to 2,500, the smallest presence in Afghanistan envisioned by American counterterrorism planners, from 4,500.
In the brand new president, Pentagon officers and high commanders had been holding on to the hope that as a result of Mr. Biden had campaigned throughout the Obama years to maintain a small counterterrorism power in Afghanistan (versus 100,000 troops), they may have a extra sympathetic ear.
Shortly after Mr. Austin was sworn in on Jan. 22, two days after the inauguration, he, General Milley and two high army officers — Gen. Austin S. Miller, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the pinnacle of the army’s Central Command, had been in lock step in recommending that about 3,000 to 4,500 troops keep in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon’s behind-the-scenes effort bought a carry from a congressionally appointed panel led by a good friend of all 4 males: Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., a retired four-star Marine normal who was additionally a former high commander in Afghanistan and previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. On Feb. 3, it really helpful that the Biden administration ought to abandon the May 1 exit deadline negotiated with the Taliban and as a substitute scale back American forces additional solely as safety situations improved.
The report by the Afghanistan Study Group, a bipartisan panel analyzing the peace deal reached in February 2020 below the Trump administration, discovered that withdrawing troops based mostly on a strict timeline, moderately than how properly the Taliban adhered to the settlement to scale back violence and enhance safety, risked the soundness of the nation and a possible civil battle as soon as worldwide forces left.
