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US pledges ‘no unilateral troop reduction’ in Afghanistan

  • February 14, 2019

Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday said Washington would not unilaterally withdraw from Afghanistan, in what many viewed as an attempt to calm European concerns.

“There will be no unilateral troop reduction,” said Shanahan, who took over from former Defense Secretary James Mattis. “That was one of the messages in the meeting today. It will be coordinated. We work together.”

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump pledged to “finally end” US involvement in “endless wars,” including Afghanistan. In December, US media reported that Trump would significantly decrease the US deployment in Afghanistan.

Since then, the US has joined in peace negotiations with the Taliban, which it ousted from power in 2011 for harboring 9/11 attacks architect Osama Bin Laden.

Read more: Germany to extend Afghanistan military mission

  • Bildergalerie Afghanistan vor Taliban

    Modern Afghanistan – in the past

    Aspiring doctors

    This picture, taken in 1962, shows two female medicine students at the University of Kabul listening to their professor as they examine a plaster showing a human body part. At that time, women played an active role in Afghan society. They also had access to education and were able to take up work outside home.

  • Bildergalerie Afghanistan vor Taliban

    Modern Afghanistan – in the past

    Style on Kabul’s streets

    Two young women dressed in Western-style outfits are seen in this picture taken in 1962 outside the building of Radio Kabul in the country’s capital city, Kabul. After the fundamentalist Taliban took over power in the mid-1990s, women were required to wear an all-covering burqa when in public.

  • Bildergalerie Afghanistan vor Taliban

    Modern Afghanistan – in the past

    Equal rights for all – not always

    In the mid-1970s, female students were a common sight at Afghan education centers such as Kabul’s Polytechnical University. But some 20 years later, women’s access to education in the conflict-ridden country was completely shut down. And it changed only after the toppling of the Taliban regime in 2001. The right to education for both men and women was enshrined in the 2003 Afghan Constitution.

  • Bildergalerie Afghanistan vor Taliban

    Modern Afghanistan – in the past

    Computer science in its infancy

    In this picture a Soviet instructor is seen teaching computing technology to Afghan students at Kabul’s Polytechnical Institute. During the 10-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, a number of Soviet lecturers taught at Afghan universities.

  • Bildergalerie Afghanistan vor Taliban

    Modern Afghanistan – in the past

    Students among themselves

    This 1981 picture shows an informal gathering of female and male Afghan students in Kabul. In 1979, a Soviet invasion of land-locked Afghanistan led to a 10-year war. When the Soviets withdrew from the country in 1989, a civil war ensued which culminated in the Taliban’s accession to power in 1996.

  • Bildergalerie Afghanistan vor Taliban

    Modern Afghanistan – in the past

    Schools for all

    This picture shows Afghan girls at a secondary school in Kabul at the time of the Soviet occupation. During the Taliban regime that followed just a few years later, women and girls were barred from attending school and denied access to education. They were also banned from taking up employment outside home.

  • Bildergalerie Afghanistan vor Taliban

    Modern Afghanistan – in the past

    A two-class society

    In this picture taken in 1981, a woman, unveiled and without a headscarf, is seen with her children. Scenes such as these have been rare ever since. Even almost 15 years after the collapse of the Taliban regime, women continue to struggle for equality in the male-dominated Afghan society. For instance, there is only one woman taxi driver in the entire country.

    Author: Esther Felden / sri


‘No unilateral decisions’

Shanahan’s remarks were welcomed in Germany, which forms part of NATO Resolute Support mission and has been in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion.

“There will be no unilateral decisions by the Americans, but that every step, every strategic step in Afghanistan will be discussed within the circle of NATO defense ministers,” said German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.

On Wednesday, the German government decided to extend the Bundeswehr’s mission in Afghanistan amid fears that the US would withdraw before the German mandate ended.

Some have also questioned why the US has yet to involve the Afghan government in negotiations with the Taliban, fearing that Afghan authorities could be left without a rigorous peace accord in place in the event of a withdrawal.

“It is very important that the Afghan government as soon as possible becomes fully integrated in the peace process,” said NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. “Without that there will be no lasting peace and no strong institutions to make sure any peace agreement is full enforced.”

Read more: Opinion: Western intervention in Afghanistan is a failure

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  • Blowing up mines near Sarajevo (picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke)

    Germany’s NATO missions

    Germany’s role in NATO

    West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn’t until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered “out of area” missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany’s Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.

  • German soldiers in Bosnia (picture alliance/AP Photo/H. Delic)

    Germany’s NATO missions

    Bosnia: Germany’s first NATO mission

    In 1995, Germany participated in its first “out of area” NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO’s member states and partners.

  • NATO Kosovo (picture-alliance/dpa/V.Xhemaj)

    Germany’s NATO missions

    Keeping the peace in Kosovo

    Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.

  • German crew members aboard warship FGS Bonn (picture alliance/AP Photo/M.Schreiber)

    Germany’s NATO missions

    Patrolling the Aegean Sea

    In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship “Bonn” to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting “reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings” in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.

  • ISAF Soldaten Afghanistan (picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Niedringhaus)

    Germany’s NATO missions

    More than a decade in Afghanistan

    In 2003, Germany’s parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Nearly a thousand soldiers are still deployed in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support.

  • Gemrman tanks in Lithuania (picture alliance/dpa/M. Kul)

    Germany’s NATO missions

    German tanks in Lithuania

    Forming part of NATO’s “enhanced forward presence” in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania so far in 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance’s eastern flank. It forms the “biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defence in a generation,” according to NATO.

  • German soldier taking part in military exercises for VJTF (S. Gallup/Getty Images)

    Germany’s NATO missions

    Taking over the leadership

    The Bundeswehr is due to take over leadership of NATO’s multinational Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) at the start of 2019. The rapid reaction force has been set up to counter potential Russian aggression on the alliance’s eastern flank.

    Author: Lewis Sanders IV


ls/msh (AFP, Reuters)

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/us-pledges-no-unilateral-troop-reduction-in-afghanistan/a-47525520?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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