Pentagon draws up plans to pull US troops out of Afghanistan by election

President Trump will be briefed by senior Pentagon officials in the coming days on plans for pulling all US troops out of Afghanistan by the November election, according to multiple reports.

The Pentagon is currently prepping multiple options for the commander-in-chief to consider, the New York Times reported Tuesday, and plan to advocate for a slower withdrawal schedule than Trump has said he would like.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley will present those options to the president as soon as this week.

The news comes as Trump has begun publicly reiterating his desire to bring US troops stationed in the Middle Eastern country, saying Tuesday at the White House, “We want to bring our soldiers back home.”

“We are not meant to be a police force, we’re meant to be a fighting force,” he continued.

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted on the matter, “We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan. After 19 years, it is time for them to police their own Country.”

The president went on to say that he wanted to “bring our soldiers back home,” but would continue to “closely watch what is going on and strike with a thunder like never before, if necessary!”

Plans being worked up by The Pentagon currently include a multiple options ranging from a full withdrawal to a partial one, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal, citing several officials, reports that one plan would leave about 5,000 troops in Afghanistan while another would leave 1,500 or so.

Another proposal would remove all US forces from the country, which has been at war for over 18 years.

That option, according to The Times, would aim for a full withdrawal by November.

The November timeline reflects an understanding among those in military leadership that the plan will likely be the most appealing to President Trump because it could help bolster his reelection campaign.

The partial withdrawal, according to both newspapers, is the most preferred by those military commanders.

The current US military strategy in Afghanistan includes training and advising Afghan forces and conducting counterterrorism missions against terror groups like ISIS.

According to The Times, the presentation of these military options is part of a larger effort by The Pentagon to avoid a repeat of how the president opted to announce his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria.

Military officials were left surprised when President Trump made the October 2019 withdrawal announcement, the paper reports. In the aftermath of the news, diplomatic chaos and some violence ensued, and the president altered his decision slightly.

Some US troops are still in Syria today, however in much smaller numbers.