Trump had tweeted weeks before the presidential election in early November that US soldiers in Afghanistan would be back in the United States by Christmas. Earlier in September, Trump also spoke of a reduction in the number of troops in Iraq.
“It was a Trump election promise just over four years ago,” explains Jens Franssen, VRT journalist and Middle East expert. “I’m going to pull the US soldiers out of those never-ending overseas wars, that was Trump’s promise.”
This withdrawal of troops from both countries has consequences. In Afghanistan, the Americans fought against the Taliban Islamist rebels, but in February the parties agreed to leave each other alone as much as possible from now on.
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