US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has warned that an American withdrawal from Afghanistan would be “to our ultimate peril,” weeks after President Donald Trump announced to prolong the Afghan war, which he once described as a “complete waste.”
“Based on intelligence community analysis and my own evaluation, I am convinced we would absent ourselves from this region at our peril,” Mattis said on Tuesday while briefing the US Congress on plans to increase American troop levels in the South Asian country.
The Trump administration recently announced plans to send an additional 3,000 troops to Afghanistan where the US already has 11,000 forces.
The US-led occupying force officially announced to end its combat operations against the Taliban in the country at the end of 2014, and its current mission is to “train, advise, and assist” Afghan troops. But the Trump administration has permitted more direct engagement between US forces and the…