Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he hopes U.S. troops in Afghanistan are “out not only before the next election but before we land today.”
He walked back previous comments he made on Monday that “it’s not only my expectation” to get troops out by the 2020 election, but said a successful drawdown “would be job-enhancing.”
President Trump campaigned on ending wars abroad and bringing American troops home. He has begun drawing down the number of U.S. forces inside Syria, and has made no secret about wanting to do the same in Afghanistan. Roughly 14,000 U.S. military personnel remain inside the country, according to the Pentagon.
“The president has been very direct about his expectations that we will reduce our operational footprint on the ground in Afghanistan just as quickly as we can get there,” Mr. Pompeo told reporters Tuesday evening.
Mr. Pompeo’s comments came the same day the Defense Department announced that two U.S. service members were killed in the Uruzgan Provence, Afghanistan in a combat-related incident.
Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, has spent about seven months engaged in talks with the Taliban and Afghan government that center on the U.S. ultimately withdrawing its forces from what is already the longest war in the nation’s history. The goal, Mr. Pompeo said, would allow the U.S. to conduct a “conditions-based withdrawal” from the country as quickly as possible.
“As each day goes by, we’re getting closer to getting an understanding from all the parties in Afghanistan about how we would deliver this better outcome not only for the United States … but for the Afghan people as well,” Mr. Pompeo added, saying he hopes to have a more significant update in the next few weeks.
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
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