Well most anyway. Breaking news! CNBC is covering the announcement from the acting Secretary of Defense that Trump has ordered all but 2,500 troops each in Iraq and Afghanistan home by January 15.<\/p>\n
Acting Pentagon chief Christopher Miller said Tuesday that the United States will reduce its military presence in Afghanistan to 2,500 troops and 2,500 troops in Iraq by Jan. 15.<\/p>\n
The United States has approximately 4,500 troops currently in Afghanistan and more than 3,000 in Iraq.<\/p>\n
“This decision by the president is based on continuous engagement with his national security cabinet over the past several months including ongoing discussions with me and my colleagues across the United States government,” Miller said at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n
“And just this morning, I spoke with key leaders in Congress as well as our allies and partners abroad to update them on these plans in light of our shared approach,” Miller said, adding that he spoke with NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg and Afghanistan’s President Ghani on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“We went in together, we adjust together and when the time is right, we will leave together,” Miller said.<\/p>\n
Last week, Miller ascended to the Pentagon’s acting Secretary of Defense role after President Donald Trump’s sudden termination of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.<\/p>\n
In an early Saturday morning message to Department of Defense employees, Miller said he was “weary of war” and that it was time to end America’s conflicts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
“We are not a people of perpetual war \u2014 it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end,” Miller wrote, adding that the U.S. was “on the verge of defeating Al Qaida and its associates.”<\/p>\n
“We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it’s time to come home,” Miller wrote.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
More at the source; CNBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"