President Donald Trump is considering significantly drawing down troops from Afghanistan, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Thursday, in the latest sign his patience is thinning both with America's longest war and overseas military interventions, generally.
Shortly after the officials spoke, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that he was quitting so that Trump could have a Pentagon chief more aligned with the president's views.
Mattis has argued for maintaining a strong U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to bolster diplomatic peace efforts. He also opposed the U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria that Trump announced on Wednesday, a move that has bewildered allies and triggered harsh reaction from Republican allies in Congress.