US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks with Defense Department staff during a visit by US President Joe Biden to the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, February 10, 2021.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
WASHINGTON – Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters in 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 entered into an agreement with the Taliban to usher in a permanent ceasefire and by mid-July last year further reduce the US military’s footprint from about 13,000 troops to 8,600.
According to the agreement, all foreign forces would leave the war-weary country by May 2021. There are currently about 2,500 U.S. troops in the country.
“I urge all parties to choose the path to peace. The violence must subside now,” Austin said in his first press release with reporters.
“I have told our allies that no matter what the outcome of our review, the United States will not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan,” he said, referring to this week’s virtual NATO meetings.
“There will be no surprises. We will consult, consult and decide together and act together,” Austin said of the NATO leadership.
A day earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had said that the alliance would 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 enables us to leave in a way that does not undermine our main goal, and that 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 what is necessary to ensure that our troops are safe,” he said when asked if the alliance was prepared to resort to violence if the agreement with the Taliban.
Members of the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team leave after a survey of equipment of a public works department on August 8 in Afghanistan.
Photo: U.S. Air Force Photo by Staff Sgt. Timothy Chacon | Flickr CC
On Capitol Hill, two-party lawmakers on Friday pressed a panel of experts recommending that the United States not reduce its military presence in Afghanistan.
“Since the American war in Afghanistan began nearly 20 years ago, more than 775,000 of our brave men and women have been deployed to Afghanistan in uniform. More than 2,400 have made the ultimate sacrifice, and another 20,000 have been wounded,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, chairman of the subcommittee on oversight and reform on national security, said in its opening statement.
“Nearly 20 years of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan could very well be defined by the next three to six months. Probably with far-reaching consequences for U.S. 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 continue to deploy troops in the war-torn country “to give the peace process enough time to deliver an acceptable result.”
Read more: Study group says Biden should keep US troops in Afghanistan over May
The recommendations of the Afghanistan Study Group, a bipartisan congressional mandate under the United States Institute of Peace, come as the Biden government reviews its power stance in the region.
“At what point is enough, enough for American involvement in this region?” asks Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana. “If a US military presence is needed, why should it include actual boots on the ground?”
Former chief of staff Joseph Dunford, who chairs the Afghanistan study group, said US intelligence would deteriorate if the military withdrew from the country.
“To work effectively in the fight against terrorism, you must, if you want to, create an ecosystem of intelligence, and we will not have the networks available from an intelligence perspective, which enables us to provide the information “and we would not have the ability to strike quickly with the necessary resources to destroy terrorists once intelligence has developed their place,” Dunford, a retired four-star general of the Navy, told lawmakers.
“If we were to do it from outside Afghanistan, you would simply have a geometry problem and a responsive problem, you would not be so effective,” he added.
The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost US taxpayers more than $ 1.57 billion since September 11, 2001, according to a Defense Department report. The war in Afghanistan, now America’s longest running conflict, began 19 years ago and cost US taxpayers $ 193 billion, according to the Pentagon.