{"id":2466,"date":"2019-12-17T05:41:40","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T05:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.caps.af\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2019-12-17T05:41:40","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T05:41:40","slug":"us-senator-supports-proposed-8600-us-troops-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caps.af\/?p=2466","title":{"rendered":"US Senator Supports Proposed \u20188,600\u2019 US Troops in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

(TOLO News): US Senator Lindsey Graham at a Kabul press conference on Monday spoke of a possible troop reduction in the next year and offered a suitable remaining force level of \u201c8,600\u201d troops, which he has heard \u201cmentioned.\u201d\u00a0 <\/strong>\u201cI believe we can responsibly reduce our forces–if the number 8,600 is chosen it\u2019s a good decision, it is not a threat to American national security, to go below that I believe would have to be substantial change\u2014a peace agreement that\u2019s real, that would stand the test of time,\u201d said Graham.\u00a0 He explained that this number is in accordance with General Miller\u2019s assessment of a force that could maintain a counter-terrorist mission while also shifting more responsibility to Afghan forces. Graham spoke of a \u201ccapability dividend,\u201d allowing US forces to be reduced because \u201cAfghan forces are getting more capable.\u201d\u00a0 Graham also spoke about his personal commitment to maintaining the progress made in Afghanistan since 2001, saying that he would never agree to let women\u2019s rights go \u201cbackward\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cThe women of Afghanistan are not going backward. I told President Trump that it would be an event of monumental proportions for the world if after all this fighting and all this sacrifice the women of Afghanistan are taken backward not forward because of a desire to end the war. They will not agree to that and I will never agree to that.\u201d He also said that to abandon Afghanistan\u2019s youth would be a \u201cstrategic mistake\u201d for the United States. Asked about Pakistan, he spoke of President Trump\u2019s desire for Pakistan to \u201cup its game\u201d in terms of helping with the peace process, and said: \u201cWe all know that if Pakistan applied more pressure on the Taliban it would be enormously helpful to resolving the conflict here.\u201d \u00a0Speaking of the Afghan election, Graham said: \u201cIn the coming weeks hopefully, we can have a government that the votes will be counted in a fashion that are considered legitimate and that new government can form a negotiating team that\u2019s representative of the Afghan people and that we may enter into a serious discussion with the Taliban to end this war. I hope that can happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(TOLO News): US Senator Lindsey Graham at a Kabul press conference on Monday spoke of a possible troop reduction in the next year and offered a suitable remaining force level of \u201c8,600\u201d troops, which he has heard \u201cmentioned.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI believe we can responsibly reduce our forces–if the number 8,600 is chosen it\u2019s a good decision, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2467,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions\/2467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caps.af\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}