by Chidanand Rajghatta

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is ordering an American drawdown in Afghanistan, bringing home some 50 per cent of the 15000 U.S troops over the next two months. Presidential directive to this effect sent to the Pentagon will effectively throw the Afghan government under the bus, and beyond that, endanger Indian presence, investment, and stakes in the country, since it is expected to open the floodgates for the return of Taliban and other Pakistani terrorist proxies.

Trump’s decision to start withdrawing from Afghanistan, which even some American experts described as a defeat, comes on the heels of a similar departure from Syria he announced abruptly over Twitter on Tuesday. The twin disengagements, which are in keeping with the non-interventionist outlook he often expressed during his Presidential campaign and after, led to the resignation on Thursday of Defence Secretary James Mattis

US defence secretary Jim Mattis quit Thursday as President Donald Trump weathered an escalating backlash at home and abroad over his sudden decision to pull all troops from Syria. Trump steadfastly defended the withdrawal of the 2,000-strong force from Syria, vowing that the United States would no longer be the "policeman of the Middle East".

The U.S President remained unconcerned about the subsequent domestic and international uproar on the twin withdrawals, even as the foreign policy and strategic establishments had a meltdown in the hours after announcement. As of Friday, he was battling to secure funding for a Southern border wall from the Congress in the face of a looming government shutdown, engendering jokes that he saw the “greatest military in the world” good only for tackling refugees and asylum-seekers.
“Getting out of Syria was no surprise. I’ve been campaigning on it for years, and six months ago, when I very publicly wanted to do it, I agreed to stay longer. Russia, Iran, Syria & other are the local enemy of ISIS. We were doing [their] work. Time to come home & rebuild,” he explained over Twitter, as even Republican lawmakers and many conservative talking heads – but for a few isolationists—excoriated him.

Trump did not refer to the Afghanistan drawndown in his initial tweets, but he asked, “Does the USA want to be the Policeman of the Middle East, getting NOTHING but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing? Do we want to be there forever?”

U.S involvement in Afghanistan has lasted 17 years and Trump has often expressed doubts about the utility of American troops there, evidently untutored over the late-1990s vacuum that led to the rise of the Al Qaida and the 9/11 catastrophe, which has been the basis for the interventionist argument espoused by the likes of Mattis and other top U.S Generals, as also many leading U.S Senators, including Republicans.

“The conditions in Afghanistan – at the present moment – make American troop withdrawals a high risk strategy. If we continue on our present course we are setting in motion the loss of all our gains and paving the way toward a second 9/11,” warned Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a key Trump ally on the domestic front

Others recorded yet another episode of American inconsistency and unreliability. “If stories about U.S. drawdown from #Afghanistan are true, Pres Trump will have done exactly what Pres Obama did: Send troops in, only to withdraw them prematurely, thereby proving the #Taliban’s maxim: Americans have watches, we have time,” Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the U.S, noted sagely.
India has invested billions of dollars in Afghanistan to help the Pakistan-ravaged country build its infrastructure and institutions without putting boots on the ground. Much of New Delhi’s efforts is premised on the security provided by American presence and military heft, and there are fears that a U.S drawdown will embolden Pakistani terrorist proxies to expand their depredations. 

The Afghan drawdown became imminent the moment Trump announced the Syria withdrawal with many analysts turning their attention to the fertile ground that gave rise to Al Qaeda and 9/11 much before ISIS appeared on the scene. 

“How do you think the US precipitous withdrawal in Syria is viewed by the Taliban? The Taliban must smell blood in the water. Why would it compromise when it sees the US so eager to leave? Since when is negotiating from a position of weakness (the US) considered a clever tactic?” asked Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal, referring to recent U.S efforts to negotiate with the Taliban, often without keeping Kabul, much less New Delhi, in the loop.

Source>>