Defense Trump: I could win Afghanistan war 'in a week'

President Donald Trump on Monday touted a secret plan to win the war in Afghanistan “in a week” at a tremendous cost to life, but insisted he would rather work with regional partners to “extricate” U.S. troops and bring to a close the nearly two-decade-long military conflict.

“If we wanted to fight a war in Afghanistan and win it, I could win that war in a week. I just don't want to kill 10 million people,” Trump said.


“I have plans on Afghanistan that if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth,” the president continued. “It would be gone. It would be over in — literally in ten days. And I don't want to do that. I don't want to go that route.”

Trump, speaking alongside Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Oval Office, said there exists “tremendous potential between” the U.S. and Pakistan, and predicted that the Islamic Republic would “help us out to extricate ourselves” from Afghanistan.

“Basically, we’re policemen right now, and we’re not supposed to be policemen. We’ve been there for 19 years in Afghanistan. It’s ridiculous, and I think Pakistan helps us with that because we don't want to stay as policemen,” the president said.

“If we wanted to, we could win that war. I have a plan that would win that war in a very short period of time, you understand that better than anybody,” Trump added, turning to Khan. But instead of “fighting to win," U.S. forces in Afghanistan are too focused on "building gas stations" and "rebuilding schools,” Trump alleged.

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“The United States, we shouldn't be doing that. That’s for them to do," he said. "But what we did and what our leadership got us into is ridiculous.”

The declaration from Trump comes amid a sustained lack of permanent leadership atop the Pentagon since former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis departed the administration in January — an exit provoked in part by the president’s stated intention to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria, as well as contemporaneous reports of a similar withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Trump for several months has been vocal in his desire to reduce America’s military presence in the Middle East, although Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley — his nominee to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — warned a hurried drawdown of troops in Afghanistan would be a “strategic mistake” at a Senate confirmation hearing just two weeks ago.

“We have already withdrawn quite a few, and we’re doing it very slowly, very safely, and we’re working with Pakistan," the president said Monday.

Khan also made a diplomatic ask of Trump from the White House, requesting that his American counterpart step in to broker talks between Pakistan and India aimed at ending the more than 70-year Kashmir territorial conflict.

“I feel that only the most powerful state, headed by President Trump, can bring the two countries together," Khan said, adding that the U.S. "can play the most important role in bringing peace in the subcontinent.”

Trump told Khan that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also extended the invitation to arbitrate the negotiations two weeks ago, and that he would "love to be a mediator" for the South Asian nations.

“President, I can tell you that right now, you will have the prayers of over a billion people if you can mediate and resolve the situation," Khan replied.

But Raveesh Kumar, the spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted Monday afternoon that Modi never called on Trump to intervene in the Kashmir dialogue, writing online: "It has been India's consistent position ... that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally."