{"id":66784,"date":"2020-11-19T23:10:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T23:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/11\/19\/accelerated-us-troop-withdrawal-rattles-afghan-allies-and-adversaries-alike\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:44:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:44:47","slug":"accelerated-us-troop-withdrawal-rattles-afghan-allies-and-adversaries-alike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2020\/11\/19\/accelerated-us-troop-withdrawal-rattles-afghan-allies-and-adversaries-alike\/","title":{"rendered":"Accelerated US troop withdrawal rattles Afghan allies and adversaries alike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ISLAMABAD \u2014 An accelerated U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, announced by Washington this week<\/a>, has rattled both allies and adversaries. There are fears of worsening violence and regional chaos, which some say could embolden the local Islamic State affiliate<\/a> to regroup and perhaps even try to build another \u201ccaliphate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under an earlier deal between the U.S. and the Taliban<\/a> that outlined a gradual pullout, the remaining U.S. forces were to leave Afghanistan by April. The Pentagon now says some 2,500 troops will leave by January, just days before President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration, leaving another 2,000 or so U.S. forces in place. Biden has said he prefers a small, intelligence-driven, counterterrorism presence in Afghanistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A U.S. withdrawal would be welcome in most of rural Afghanistan where civilians are increasingly caught in the crossfire between Taliban and government forces, said Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan government adviser and political analyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter a bombing by any side of the conflict, no one has gone back to rebuild any infrastructure. No one has really worked on healing hearts and minds,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S.-Taliban deal, signed in February<\/a>, was largely propelled by Washington\u2019s fear of an expanding Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, said a U.S. Defense Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With terrorist plots that he said had links to Afghanistan, Washington sought a deal with the Taliban that would bring them into a coordinated fight \u2014 along with Afghan security forces \u2014 against the Islamic State militant group<\/a>, which lost its self-proclaimed \u201ccaliphate\u201d in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A U.S.-led coalition toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan for harboring former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Taliban has regained strength in recent years in the country, although the Islamic State and a degraded al-Qaida still carry out attacks in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWashington has looked at Afghanistan largely through a counterterrorism lens. And that will certainly be the case for the incoming Biden administration,\u201d said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\t