DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: The United States plans to cut its troop levels in Afghanistan to “a number less than 5,000” by the end of November, Defence Secretary Mark Esper said in an interview broadcast on Saturday, adding detail to drawdown plans US President Donald Trump announced earlier this week.
The US currently has about 8,600 troops in Afghanistan. Trump said in an interview released Monday by Axios that the US planned to lower that number to about 4,000. Esper also said that criticisms of the US troop reduction in Germany are unwarranted, claiming that many of these forces are simply being relocated further east in order to serve as a more effective ‘deterrent’ against Russia.
The Pentagon chief said that military personnel leaving Germany would be put to better use once they are stationed along Russia’s border.
“We are moving many troops further east, closer to Russia’s border, to deter them,” he said, adding that moving troops eastward is only logical because “the border has shifted as the alliance has grown.”
He also accused Germany of not paying its “fair share” for defense, noting that the NATO ally was still the largest “recipient” of the US troops. “It is collective security, it is about our collective responsibility to stand up to the Russians,” Esper argued. The Pentagon is planning to withdraw a third of its forces stationed in Germany.
