White House Pondering Scaling Back The U.S. Military Commitment To Afghanistan



US News and World Report: Trump Plans for Afghanistan MIA as Pressure Builds in America’s Longest War

Casualties on the ground remain at all-time highs as the U.S.-backed government falters without clear White House support.

The security situation in Afghanistan is as bad as it has been since the 2001 U.S. invasion, according to a government report that casts new urgency on a stalled White House effort to determine how – and, perhaps, if – America should proceed in its longest war.

From January to May 8 of this year, more than 2,500 Afghan soldiers and federal police died fighting insurgents from the Taliban and other extremist networks, according to the latest report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, exceeding the total number of U.S. deaths from the war at 2,400 and yielding a staggering average of 20 combat deaths per day. By comparison, in the summer of 2010, during the bloodiest fighting season for the U.S. in Afghanistan, the average number of American deaths per day never exceeded 1.3. The latest casualty numbers are consistent with the same period last year, demonstrating how fighting conditions for the 330,000 Afghans currently in uniform have not improved as expected.

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