AFGHANISTAN/MILITARY: “President Donald Trump’s reservations about sending more troops to Afghanistan have triggered a new exploration of an option long considered unlikely: withdrawal.
Unable to agree on a plan to send up to 3,900 more American forces to help turn back Taliban advances in Afghanistan, the White House is taking a new look at what would happen if the U.S. decided to scale back its military presence instead, according to current and former Trump administration officials…
The exploration is an outgrowth of a deep divide at the White House, where the president and his top advisers are reluctant to send more American troops to Afghanistan without a clear strategy.
There appears to be support in the administration for a modest plan to send a few thousand more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, to put more pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militant sanctuaries, and to seek help from China, India and Pakistan in reaching regional peace deals. But there is no consensus, said people involved in the debate, making it unlikely that the U.S. would send more forces to help the Afghan government repel Taliban advances this summer.”
-Dion Nissenbaum, “White House Looks at Scaling Back U.S. Military Presence in Afghanistan,” The Wall Street Journal online, July 30, 2017 11:03am