President Trump on Monday announced he will not pull out U.S. troops from Afghanistan, saying he’s committed to a new strategy aimed at winning the nation’s longest war.
During a prime-time address to the nation, Trump declared a rapid exit from the war-torn nation would leave a major power vacuum that would create a new safe haven for terrorists — a result he called “predictable and unacceptable.”
The president acknowledged his “original instinct was to pull out,” a reference to his long-held view that the U.S. erred when it entered Afghanistan and that the military should withdraw quickly.
But he said the calculation is different “when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office,” and he has determined the U.S. must continue to fight to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Read more at The Hill.
