WASHINGTON & KABUL, Afghanistan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Afghanistan Foundation is urging President Donald Trump to withdraw 4,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan in the coming 120 days, by Christmas of this year, and to reduce the number of U.S.-paid, private security contract personnel operating covertly in the country.
“We are calling on President Trump to significantly decrease, not increase, U.S. troop and private security personnel in Afghanistan over the next 120 days, with 4,000 U.S. troops being brought home by Christmas of this year,” said Philip Smith, President and Executive Director of the Afghanistan Foundation in Washington, D.C. “At this time, pouring additional U.S. troops and taxpayers' money into the present snake pit and quagmire of Afghanistan is not prudent, and instead is counterproductive given the increasingly deep ethnic divisions and extraordinarily high levels of corruption within elements of the Afghan military, police and government.”
Smith continued: “Ongoing, massive corruption within senior ranks of the Afghan government, large scale defections of Afghan troops and police, as well as the waste, fraud and abuse of billions in U.S. taxpayers' money in Afghanistan, call for a much different policy approach by President Trump. Clearly, America has reached a point of diminishing returns on investment in Afghanistan and needs a lower U.S. troop profile to prevent creating more popular resentment and increased terrorist support and recruitment among ordinary Afghans, and in Pakistan, especially in the tribal areas.”
“The Afghanistan Foundation is calling for the withdrawal of 4,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan in the next 120 days and no additional U.S. funding for private military contractors, or U.S. private military personnel, up and above current levels,” Smith said. “The Kabul government must stand on its own two feet; it cannot continue to be propped up with unlimited amounts of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars and the blood of American soldiers.”
President Trump is slated to speak today about U.S. policy toward Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan Foundation was founded as a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S., with the mission of helping to educate policymakers and the public about the nation of Afghanistan, its people, culture and history. http://www.afghanistan-foundation.org