Biden seems ready to extend US troop presence in Afghanistan
Removing all of the troops and their equipment in the next three weeks — along with coalition partners who can’t get out on their own — would be difficult logistically.
Removing all of the troops and their equipment in the next three weeks — along with coalition partners who can’t get out on their own — would be difficult logistically.
Afghanistan presents one of the new administration’s tougher and more urgent decisions.
President Biden is expected to win approval for others on his national security team in coming days, including Antony Blinken as secretary of state.
The president said Thursday that troop levels in Afghanistan had reached a 19-year low, although he did not mention a troop number.
The plan will accelerate troop withdrawals in Trump’s final days in office, despite arguments from senior military officials in favor of a slower, more methodical pullout.
Esper clashed with the president over Trump’s steps to draw the military into partisan politics.
Two days earlier, Defense Secretary Mark Esper indicated that he was open to a broad discussion of such changes.
Leaders acknowledge that black troops often are disproportionately subject to military legal punishment and are impeded in promotions.
Two days after Gen. Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad, the U.S. troops in Iraq to fight the Islamic State are now focused on their own defense.
The president appeared to make light of the desperate situation the Kurdish fighters face with the loss of U.S. military support.
But the Space Force, which has become a reliable applause line for Trump at his campaign rallies, has yet to win final approval by Congress.
Mark Esper, an Army veteran and former defense industry lobbyist, won Senate confirmation by a vote of 90-8 and was sworn in at the White House by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.