U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks to Department of Defense personnel during a visit by US President Joe Biden to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on February 10, 2021.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday that the Biden government had not yet decided whether the United States would withdraw its troops by the May 1 deadline.
Last February, the United States brokered an agreement with the Taliban that would initiate a permanent ceasefire and further reduce the US military footprint from approximately 13,000 troops to 8,600 in mid-July last year.
In May 2021, all foreign forces would leave the country tired of the war, according to the agreement. There are about 2,500 American soldiers currently in the country.
“I urge all parties to choose the path to peace. Violence must now subside,” Austin said at his first press conference with reporters.
“I told our allies that no matter the outcome of our review, the United States will not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan,” he said referring to NATO’s virtual meetings this week.
“There will be no surprises. We will consult, consult and decide together and act together,” said Austin of the NATO-led mission.
A day earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance will continue to assess the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. NATO joined the international security effort in Afghanistan in 2003 and currently has more than 7,000 troops in the country.
“Our goal is to ensure that we have a lasting political agreement that allows us to leave in a way that does not undermine our main objective, which is to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven again. [for terrorists]”Said Stoltenberg.
“The majority of the troops are from European allies and partner countries. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that our troops are safe,” he said when asked if the alliance was prepared for violence if the Taliban agreement is broken.
Members of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team set out to conduct an equipment search at a Department of Public Works facility on August 8 in Afghanistan.
Photo: US Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Timothy Chacon | Flickr CC
At Capitol Hill, bipartisan lawmakers lobbied a panel of experts on Friday that recommended the United States not to reduce its military presence in Afghanistan.
“Since the U.S. war in Afghanistan started nearly 20 years ago, more than 775,000 of our brave men and women in uniform have been sent to Afghanistan. Over 2,400 made the final sacrifice and another 20,000 were injured,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, chairman of the national security oversight and reform subcommittee, said in his opening statement.
“Almost 20 years of US involvement in Afghanistan could well be defined in the next three to six months. Probably with profound consequences for US national security and the future stability of the region, ”he added.
The panel wrote in a report released earlier this month that US troops should keep troops in the war-torn country “to give the peace process enough time to produce an acceptable outcome”.
Read More: Biden to keep US troops in Afghanistan after May deadline, study group says
The recommendations of the Afghanistan Study Group, a bipartisan panel mandated by the Congress of the United States Institute of Peace, come at a time when the Biden government is conducting a review of its position of strength in the region.
“At what point is it sufficient, sufficient for American involvement in this region?” asked Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana. “If an American military force is needed, why does that have to include real boots on the ground?”
Former President of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, who co-chairs the Afghanistan Study Group, said that US intelligence would deteriorate if the military withdrew from the country.
“To be effective in conducting counterterrorism, it is necessary to create an ecosystem, if we want, of intelligence and we would not have the networks at our disposal from the point of view of intelligence, we would not have the availability of a platform, that is, the systems that allow us to that intelligence, and we would not have the ability to strike quickly with the resources necessary to destroy terrorists once the intelligence finds its location, “Dunford, a retired four-star navy general, told lawmakers.
“So if we did that from outside Afghanistan, you would have only one geometry problem and one responsiveness problem, you would not be as effective,” he added.
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost American taxpayers more than $ 1.57 trillion since September 11, 2001, according to a Defense Department report. The war in Afghanistan, which is now America’s longest running conflict, started 19 years ago and cost US taxpayers $ 193 billion, according to the Pentagon.