2019 Munich Security Conference: U.S. Lawmakers Meet Ghani, Warn Against Big Afghanistan Troop Pullout by Joe Gould - Defense News
Amid plans to withdraw 1,000 or more American troops from Afghanistan, several key U.S. lawmakers, after meeting with President Ashaf Ghani on Saturday, warned against a wider drawdown like the one President Donald Trump has planned for Syria.
Lawmakers said Ghani spoke with them on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference about the Afghan peace process, the U.S. troop presence and recent Russian involvement. The bipartisan group included Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, House Armed Services Committee ranking member Mac Thornberry, and both Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch, R-Iowa, and ranking member Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Mike Pence separately met Ghani at Munich, just days after Trump made a speech to Congress making the case for drawing down the number of American troops in the Middle East and Afghanistan. He called U.S. talks with the Taliban “constructive” and said, “the hour has come to at least try for peace.”
Addressing the conference, Merkel questioned the wisdom of a rapid U.S. withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan, among other unilateral moves undertaken by the Trump administration. She cautioned that the NATO mission in Afghanistan is dependent upon U.S. participation…