Trump: Rapid exit from Afghanistan unacceptable

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US President Donald Trump said a rapid exit from Afghanistan is unacceptable and it would create a power "vacuum" that will benefit terrorists, vowing the US will keep fighting in Afghanistan.

He added that the US will continue to support the Afghan government and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorists bent on attacking the US.

Trump made the remarks while detailing his view of the US engagement and "the path forward" in Afghanistan and South Asia during his first major security address from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night local time.

US President Donald Trump speaks during his address to the nation from Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, on August 21, 2017. /AFP Photo

However, Trump did not give any details on how many US troops would be sent. Defense Secretary James Mattis has plans on the table to send about 4,000 more to add to the 8,400 deployed in Afghanistan currently.

Trump warned that the approach would now be more pragmatic than idealistic. Security assistance to Afghanistan was "not a blank check", he said, warning he would not send the military to "construct democracies in faraway lands or create democracies in our own image."

"We are not nation-building again. We are killing terrorists."

A conflict that began in October 2001 as a hunt for the 9/11 attackers has turned into a vexed effort to keep Afghanistan's divided and corruption-hindered democracy alive amid a brutal Taliban insurgency.

While it is widely viewed that Afghanistan's government and leadership will welcome the plan of increasing troops, it is not that popular among the people as fears of rising casualties year on year, more military forces from foreign countries are likely to further deepen the conflicts in the war-torn country.

Trump for the first time also left the door open to an eventual political deal with the Taliban.

"Someday, after an effective military effort, perhaps it will be possible to have a political settlement that includes elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan," he said. "But nobody knows if or when that will ever happen."

Tougher on Pakistan

Trump indicated that single-minded approach would extend to US relations with troubled ally Pakistan, which consecutive US administrations have criticized for links with the Taliban and for harboring leading jihadists -- like Osama bin Laden.

"We can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organizations," he said warning that vital aid could be cut.

"We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists that we are fighting," he said. "That will have to change and that will change immediately."

Trump also says US will further develop strategic partnership with India, adding the US wants India to help more with Afghanistan in areas of economic assistance and development.

Pakistani soldiers patrol at the site of a court complex after multiple Taliban suicide bombings in the Tangi area of Charsadda district on February 21, 2017. /AFP Photo

Ahead of the speech, Pakistan's military brushed off speculation that Trump could signal a stronger line against Islamabad, insisting the country has done all it can to tackle militancy.

"Let it come," army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told reporters, referring to Trump's decision. "Even if it comes... Pakistan shall do whatever is best in the national interest."

A reverse from past skepticism

In his first formal address to the nation as commander-in-chief, Trump discarded his previous criticism of the 16-year-old war as a waste of time and money, admitting things looked different from "behind the desk in the Oval Office."

Trump now faces a backlash from his base for reversing his pledge not to deepen military entanglements on foreign soil.

A US soldier holding the national flag ahead of a handover ceremony at Leatherneck Camp in Lashkar Gah in the Afghan province of Helmand on April 29, 2017. /AFP Photo

"My original instinct was to pull out," adding the speech came after a months-long review of US policy in which he frequently tangled with his top advisers on the future of US involvement in Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents have been making territorial gains and 2,400 US servicemen have lost their lives.

"I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle," he said, hoping to show he has sufficiently pondered the decision to send more young Americans into mortal danger.

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters