Trump has handed Taliban a victory: McMaster

KABUL (Pajhwok): A former US national security adviser has accused the Trump administration of handing the Taliban a victory by drawing down troops from Afghanistan.

In an interview, HR McMaster slammed as abhorrent the Pentagon’s plan to reduce the US force levels in Afghanistan by mid-January.

The ex-security advisor, speaking on the CBS News Face the Nation on Sunday, blamed Trump for paradoxically doubling down on the flaws of the Obama administration approach to Afghanistan.

He hit out at the outgoing leader for conjuring up the enemy “we would prefer, instead of the actual enemy that we are facing.

The former adviser believed Afghanistan deserved better, particularly from the president, who is due to leave the White House by the end of January.

McMaster, who suggested there should be at least 5,000 troops left in Afghanistan, blamed the Taliban for establishing control of large parts of Afghanistan.

The US troop absence would “give safe haven and support base to terrorists who were out to commit mass murder against the Americans on the scale of 9/11, he warned.

“If we were going to leave, just leave, but don’t force the Afghan government to release 5,000 of the most heinous people on Earth…”

PAN Monitor/mud

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