US troop withdrawal will jeopardize peace efforts: Former Afghanistan commander

Former top US commander in Afghanistan Retired General Stanley McChrystal has said that the withdrawal of half of 14,000 American troops stationed in the war-torn country would jeopardize the peace efforts as it would reduce the incentive for the Taliban to negotiate a deal to end the 17-year war.

"If you tell the Taliban that we are absolutely leaving on date certain, cutting down, weakening ourselves, their incentives to try to cut a deal drop dramatically," retired four-star Army Gen. McChrystal said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

McChrystal added that he was worried that the Afghan people will lose confidence in the US as an ally that can be counted on.

This came as reports had emerged earlier suggesting that US President Donald Trump was mulling withdrawal of nearly 7,000 troops from the country.

However, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Military Marine General Joseph Dunford last week said that the mission for the US troops in Afghanistan continued as planned.

"There's all kinds of rumours swirling around," Gen. Dunford was quoted as saying in a report by Stars and Stripes.

Meanwhile, Gen. McChrystal also criticized Trump for his approach to the presidency and labelled him as "dishonest" and "immoral".

"I don't think he tells the truth," he said.

Talking about Defence Secretary James Mattis' resignation, Gen. McChrystal said: "If we have someone who is as selfless and as committed as Jim Mattis, resigns his position walking away from all the responsibility he feels for every service member in our forces and he does so in a public way like that, we ought to stop and say okay, why did he do it?"

"We ought to ask what kind of Commander-in-Chief he had that Jim Mattis that the good marine felt he had to walk away."

In November, McChrystal wrote in a column for CNN saying that "America is facing a leadership crisis".

"We've become increasingly obsessed with what national leader we're for or against," he said. "President Trump is just the most bombastic example of this phenomenon, which has been playing out for decades."

--IANS

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