The United States will reduce the number of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan

In the midst of the US election campaign, Donald Trump, who has just been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, has put out the final package of 'soft measures' in the hope of making an impact in the November elections

The news came in the form of a statement made on board the Air Force One presidential plane as Trump was returning from an election event in North Carolina. There are still no details of the exact number of soldiers who will return from Iraq and Afghanistan, nor is the date of the withdrawal known. Currently, there are 5,200 US soldiers in Iraq and 8,600 in Afghanistan.

In August, an official who spoke on condition of anonymity assured that the American country would reduce its troops in Iraq to 3,500 by November, when the presidential elections will be held, in which Trump will face the Democrat Joe Biden.

The defence secretary, Mark Esper, also revealed that Washington intends to leave 5,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of November. However, Trump went further and, in an interview with the portal Axios in August, stated that he wanted to leave the number of soldiers deployed in Afghanistan at 4,000.

The information on the withdrawal of troops comes at a time when Trump wants to show that he has fulfilled his promise to "get the United States out of endless wars" with a view to the November elections.
 

The US president faces numerous criticisms after The Atlantic magazine revealed that, in 2018, he refused to visit the military cemetery in Aisne-Marne. There lie the fallen Americans at the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I, Trump refused to attend because it was full of "losers" and "failures".

The president denies making such derogatory comments and, taking advantage of the election campaign, this week declared that "things have been made up, nobody loves the military more than I do". His words were received with applause by the thousands of people who gathered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a key state for the November elections.

The "global war on terror" began after the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States. Today it has left 37 million people displaced around the world, the largest conflict exile since the beginning of the 20th century with the exception of World War II.

The passenger plane attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon and the downing of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania on 11 September triggered a series of wars to catch those responsible.  

These struggles led to the end of Taliban hegemony in Afghanistan, but the initial objectives of the war were gradually blurred over time, especially with the false justification for invading Iraq in 2003.

With his arrival in the presidency in 2009, Barack Obama maintained the global war against terrorism, stepped up the drone attacks in Yemen and Somalia and intensified his deployment in Afghanistan, which he put an end to by transferring control of security to the Kabul government in 2014.

Now Donald Trump is taking another step in the demilitarisation process. This decision, together with the talks and dialogues he is holding to attempt to put an end to the Middle East conflict, have led him to be controversially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.