ISLAMABAD – US President Donald Trump has once again insisted that he willwithdraw his forces from Afghanistan.
In an interview with CBS News published on Sunday, February 3, Trump saidthe US has been engaged in Afghanistan for 19 years, spending billions ofdollars on the military.
“And by the way, I’ve been hitting very hard in Afghanistan and now we’renegotiating with the Taliban. We’ll see what happens, who knows,” Trumpsaid in the interview.
When asked whether he will keep a smaller number of troops in Afghanistan,Trump said “yes”, but added that he will “leave intelligence” there – inAfghanistan.
“Yes. And I’ll leave intelligence there. Real intelligence, by the way.I’ll leave intelligence there and if I see nests forming, I’ll do somethingabout it. But for us to be spending 51 billion dollars, like last year, orif you average the cost it’s- I mean you’re talking about numbers thatnobody’s ever heard of before,” he said in the interview with CBS News.
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Trump meanwhile said that former US Defense Secretary James Mattis resignedbecause he “asked him to resign”. “He resigned because I was very nice tohim. But I gave him big budgets and he didn’t do well in Afghanistan. I wasnot happy with the job he was doing in Afghanistan,” he said.
Similar remarks were made by Trump when he addressed reporters at the OvalOffice on February 1.
