Afghanistan: America’s top commander says US troop withdrawals are risky

Admiral Mike Mullen says withdrawal of 23,000 troops by next summer was bigger than he had been prepared to back America’s most senior commander, Admiral Mike Mullen, described the troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, announced by Barack Obama, as risky. Giving evidence before the Senate’s armed services committee the day after Obama’s decision, Mullen said the withdrawal of 10,000 US troops by the end of this year and a further 23,000 by next summer was bigger than he had originally been prepared to back. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the reductions were “more aggressive and incur more risk” than he considered prudent. Mullen, who is retiring this year, said: “More force for more time is, without doubt, the safer course. But that does not necessarily make it the best course. Only the president, in the end, can really determine the acceptable level of risk we must take. I believe he has done so.” Military commanders had hoped to hold the number of US and other international troops as close to the present 150,000 as possible, saying they were stretched and needed to protect gains made over the winter. They advised Obama to make only “modest” withdrawals. US and Nato officers will have to further rework their plans for Afghanistan after European countries announced that they would match Obama’s troop reductions, adding to the strain on military commanders in the field. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has 4,000 troops in Afghanistan, said: “France will begin a gradual withdrawal of reinforcement troops sent to Afghanistan, in a proportional manner and in a calendar comparable to the withdrawal of American reinforcements.” The German defence minister, Guido Westerwelle, who has 4,800 troops in Afghanistan, echoed the French, saying he hoped “to be able to reduce our own troop contingent for the first time” by the end of the year. Poland, which has 2,500 troops, is also to reduce its presence this year, according to the country’s head of security, General Stanislaw Koziej. Nato’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, expressed optimism that “the tide is turning” in Afghanistan and that the troop withdrawal was the natural result. Obama went to Fort Drum army base in New York state to highlight his message that America was at the beginning of the end of the war in Afghanistan, even though 68,000 American troops will remain after the planned withdrawals. Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, welcomed Obama’s decision and said that Afghan forces were ready to take over the burden from the departing troops: “The Afghan people’s trust in the Afghan army and police is growing every day and preservation of this land is the job of Afghans,” he said. The Taliban dismissed Obama’s announcement, noting that there would still be a large US presence after the pullout and calling for an immediate withdrawal: “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan once again wants to make it clear that the solution for the Afghan crisis lies in the full withdrawal of all foreign troops immediately and [while] this does not happen, our armed struggle will increase from day to day,” the Taliban said. In the US, reaction was mixed, with many Democrats expressing disappointment that the troops reductions were not bigger. Republicans were divided, with some criticising Obama for failing to heed the advice of his military commanders and others sharing the Democratic calls for bigger and faster cuts. The Democratic head of the Senate’s foreign affairs committee, John Kerry, welcomed Obama’s announcement but pinpointed Pakistan rather than Afghanistan as the bigger challenge. On Afghanistan, Kerry said the bottom line was that no number of troops would resolve the problem and that there was a need for a political solution, from reconciliation with the Taliban to shutting down extremist sanctuaries. Mitt Romney, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to take on Obama in next year’s presidential election, repeated his call for speedy withdrawal and criticised Obama for failing to listen to the advice of his commanders. “We all want our troops to come home as soon as possible, but we shouldn’t adhere to an arbitrary timetable on the withdrawal,” said Romney. “This decision should not be based on politics or economics.” US military Afghanistan Barack Obama Obama administration United States Nato Hamid Karzai Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 23, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.