Our Troops in Afghanistan to be Reduced by 2020 Election: Pompeo

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that President Donald Trump ordered him to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the 2020 election, in some of the clearest comments to date about Trump’s intentions for winding down the nearly 18-year-old conflict.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday that President Donald Trump ordered him to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the 2020 election, in some of the clearest comments to date about Trump’s intentions for winding down the nearly 18-year-old conflict.
“That’s my directive from the president of the United States. He’s been unambiguous: End the endless wars. Draw down. Reduce. It won’t just be us,” said Pompeo, speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

Pompeo also suggested that a troop withdrawal is connected to how the president views his job performance, saying a reduction of forces is “not only my expectation, it would be job-enhancing.”
“We want them to take their country back and we want to reduce what is, for us, tens of billions of dollars a year in expenditures,” Pompeo added.

This comes as NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said that two U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan on Monday, bringing the number of American forces killed there to at least 11