Pentagon planning partial pullout from Afghanistan

Both White House and Pentagon officials recently rejected reports of an Afghan drawdown as media speculation, saying President Donald Trump had not yet issued specific orders.
“The US military is drafting plans to withdraw a few thousand troops from Afghanistan while continuing all major missions in the longest war in American history,” The Washington Post said.
President Trump was interested in a quick pullout of 7,000 troops, but the Pentagon’s plans fell short of that both in size and time, the newspaper quoted unnamed officials as saying.
The plan envisages a few thousand troops over a much longer period of time, according to the report, which said Trump had sought options for pulling out from the war in Afghanistan.
The Pentagon has suggested recalling about half of what Trump was initially seeking. Even this would mark nearly a full rollback of the 3,900-troop increase allowed in August 2017.
“Military advisers have convinced him that a smaller, and slower, withdrawal is best for now -- although officials cautioned that a final decision had not been reached and that the president could order a full pullout at any moment,” the report said.