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Trump: “We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!”

SHOULD, not must. And I agree. We should have them all home in time for Christmas, but that doesn’t mean we will. A tweet is not an order.

Robert O’Brien, according to the NYT, said the other day that he expected a big reduction of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by early next year.

A big reduction by early next year. Again, not an order to the troops.

Gen Mark Milley’s comment: “We have a plan, a series of responsible drawdown options that has been briefed to the president. I’m not going to go into specific numbers for the future. I think that would be appropriate for me as the chairman to talk specific numbers in future operations, we typically don’t do that. But we have a responsible plan to end the war with U.S. interests clearly in mind.”

The general’s statement is totally compatible with the president’s tweet. There is no agreement to have the troops out by a specific date before or early after Christmas. So what you have here is the NYT claiming Trump set a hard date of out by Christmas, and then claiming Gen. Milley walked that back in attempt to show conflict and division between the president and the military. It’s FAKE NEWS!!!