Alwaght- US President Donald Trump has ordered the start of withdrawing some 7,000 troops from Afghanistan, about half of the total number of American boots on the ground in the war-torn country.
The abrupt decision, which came a day after the president’s announcement of military withdrawal from Syria, has stunned officials who say they have not been briefed on the plans.
Sources say Trump’s decision on Afghanistan was made at the same time he decided to pull American forces out of Syria.
The pullout from Syria prompted US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to finally announce his long-anticipated resignation to allow President Trump to have a defense chief whose views are more aligned with the US president, he said in his resignation letter Thursday.
Speculation on possible resignation of Mattis intensified in September with the publication of Bob Woodward’s Fear: Trump in the White House, which said the former military officer had described Trump as an idiot and told colleagues the president “acted like – and had the understanding of – a fifth- or sixth-grader”.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia on Thursday hailed the decision by President Trump to withdraw US forces from Syria, calling it “correct” because the American troops were not needed.
