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Donald Trump’s closing Biden’s options in Afghanistan

Last Updated 23 November 2020, 18:23 IST

It is hard to dispel the feeling that the Donald Trump administration is using its last months in power to make things difficult for the incoming Joe Biden administration on several foreign policy issues, specifically Afghanistan, which impacts India. Last week, the Pentagon announced plans to accelerate American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq. It proposes to reduce its troops there from 4,500 to 2,500 soldiers by January 15, pre-empting Biden, who will take office on January 20, from attempting any rethink on the matter. The decision is ill-conceived and badly timed. Talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban are proceeding in Doha, albeit in fits and starts and lurching from one impasse to another. Maintaining its troop presence would have provided America with leverage over the Taliban and kept up pressure on the group to remain engaged in talks with the Afghan government. The accelerated troop pull-out will embolden the Taliban, instead, to intensify pressure on the Kabul government through attacks on Afghan forces and civilians. It will encourage the Taliban to adopt even more inflexible positions at the negotiating table. Afghanistan is already roiled in violence. The Taliban, the Islamic State of Khorasan Province and the Haqqani Network are unleashing unprecedented levels of violence on civilians. By downsizing its troops at this point, the US is abandoning the Afghan people and the Afghan government at a critical time.

A few hours before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began his talks with the Taliban and Afghan government representatives at Doha last week, terror groups were raining rockets on Kabul. This, and the recent string of major attacks across Afghanistan, should underscore to the Americans that the security situation in the country is not conducive to a troop pull-out at this time, a point that even US generals have made to President Trump. But Trump is more focused on tying the hands of his successor on policy options in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Biden, too, is in favour of keeping just a small number of combat troops in Afghanistan. But should he want to increase their numbers, he will have to go back to the US Congress for approval. That could prove to be a difficult process. Trump should have left decisions on American troop deployment to the new administration. A whittled down troop presence in Afghanistan will leave the Biden administration with little leverage over the Taliban. It is unfortunate that Afghan civilians will end up paying the price for Trump’s churlish point-scoring against Biden.

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(Published 23 November 2020, 18:13 IST)

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