By Chathushka Perera
KABUL, Afghanistan (CWBN)_ In a bid to accelerate the removal of US troops from across the world (Afghanistan in particular) before his stay at the White House comes to a close, President Donald Trump has appointed Christopher Miller as Acting Defence Secretary. The appointment follows the firing of former Secretary of Defence, Mark Esper, over Twitter, on Monday.
Miller is a former Colonel of the US Army, who retired into a career as a defence contractor in 2014. Between 2018 and 2019 he served as a counter-terrorism advisor with the National Security Council, under the Trump administration. Prior to his appointment as acting secretary, Miller was handed the role of Director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, in August this year.
A statement released by the Department of Defence, within 24 hours from Esper’s removal, announced serious personnel changes within the Pentagon, setting off alarms, and since, four senior officials have either been fired or forced to quit. The vacated positions have reportedly been filled by Trump-loyalists, including former US Army Colonel, Douglas Macgregor, as senior adviser to Miller.
Macgregor, who is the Vice-President of Burke-Macgregor LLC, a strategic consultation service based in Virginia concerned with energy, economy and national security, is a controversial figure both during his military career and as a regular guest-critique on Fox News, promoting conspiracy theories. In 2012, he went on record heavily criticizing that the military capabilities of the Marine and the XVIII Airborne Corps. made them “relevant as the Army’s horse cavalry in the 1930s”.
Since the White House announced that Macgregor will be nominated as the US Ambassador to Germany, in July, Macgregor’s past remarks have gradually come into the spotlight.
Trumps moves are expected to create chaos in global security during a contentious period where the Covid-19 pandemic and the power shifts in Asia have brought much concern over the future of democracy. Moreover, Trump’s refusal to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, is yet another factor that undermines national level security.
With regard to Afghanistan, a complete troop pull-out is expected to derail ongoing peace talks in Doha, Qatar, which were initiated in September. Although talks stagnated around October, Special US Representative, Zalmay Khalilzad, stated that 18 of 20 articles of interest have been agreed on.
The remaining two, concerning the application of the US-Taliban Agreement and the religious values, were disagreed upon, hence leading toward an escalation of conflict and attacks against civilians, particularly in Helmand, Uruzgan and Kandahar.
NATO and Coalition have been supporting the Afghan government reach peace, strengthen national security and rebuild, since the outbreak of the war, 19 years ago. Nonetheless, the largest portion of the NATO led coalition depend upon US leadership and manpower of up to 8000 personnel. Should these troops be pulled out, the security of both Afghanistan and the region itself would be put at risk, and may even support the efforts of Russia, China and Pakistan in the long term.
Edited by Elishya Perera
