Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bogomipz | Hacker News Reader

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The US didn't leave Afghanistan in one big step. The US ended its combat mission in Afghanistan is December of 2014. That's 6.5 years ago now.[1][2]. This was widely covered by the international news media. At the time there was a big ceremony in Kabul to mark the occasion of turning security of the country over to the Afghan armed forces who were ~350k strong at that point. The drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan has been going on for over a decade now and began in 2010. By 2015 there were only 10K troops left and their role since then has been non-combat(advisory and training.)[3] More recently under Trump that number of troops was drawn down to just 3K.

[1] https://time.com/3648055/united-states-afghanistan-war-end/

[2] https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/1...

[3] https://www.npr.org/2016/07/06/484979294/chart-how-the-u-s-t...

"The US ended its combat mission in Afghanistan is December of 2014"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_War_in_Afghanis...

The U.S. military carried out at least a dozen operations, including commando raids and airstrikes,

in early March 2017, American and Afghan forces launched Operation Hamza to "flush" ISIS-K from its stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, engaging in regular ground battles.

"In January 2015, United States Forces began conducting drone strikes in Afghanistan under the direction of the administration of the United States President Barack Obama against Taliban militants".

American forces have increased raids against "Islamist militants"

Throughout 2015, the US launched about one thousand bombs and missiles at targets in Afghanistan

"Despite US airstrikes"

"U.S. forces have been carrying out operations with Afghan forces"

"According to Defense Department statistics 9 U.S. service members were killed in action"

"US aircraft conducted around 30 air strikes in Helmand Province"

You get the point.

You might want to look closer at your own link which clearly points out that post 2014 the US and Afghanistan began coordination on Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The purpose of that mission was solely assisting the Afghan security forces with counterterrorism operations against local ISIS and Al-Queda affiliates as well as the Haqqani networks. All of your copy/pasted quotes are actually in support of these facts.

Further, your link also explains that in 2015 began the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission whose purview was solely training, advising, and assisting the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.

So yes, pretty much what I said above.

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